每天读一篇英语小故事：US Passports Outsourced

英语自学网

　　The federal government has decided that it’s too expensive to print US
passports in the US. Starting later this year, the government will send all
passports to Thailand. A printing company in Thailand will print all US
passports at a significant savings to the US taxpayer.
        　　A radio ad in Los Angeles proclaims that a citizen’s identity is stolen
every 3 seconds. “Outsourcing our passports is only going to make identity theft
a bigger problem,” said an angry citizen. “What’s next? Before we know it,
they’ll be printing driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and social security
cards in Thailand. This will result in total chaos. Fifty people will have the
same passport and driver’s license.”
        　　A US Senator said that outsourcing is necessary because of the Iraq War.
“To pay for the war, we have to reduce our spending elsewhere,” he said. He said
that passports were only the beginning; money was next. Starting two years from
now, he said that all US cash would be printed overseas. Starting three years
from now, he said, military vehicles and weapons would be made overseas.
        　　“The good news,” he said, “is that we are going to also outsource our
military troops. Two undeveloped countries have agreed to replace our soldiers
starting four years from now. Our American soldiers will gradually return to
America, and these foreign soldiers will do all the fighting in Iraq. This will
reduce our military costs in Iraq 90 percent, from $10 billion monthly to only
$1 billion. To further reduce spending, of course, all the returning American
soldiers will be laid off.”