Why does everything else cost more (since "costs" is the main argument in that petition)? Any numbers comparing Linux and some BSD (or insert anything else here from the free world)?

I don't like petitions in which $AverageJoe asks $Government to do $Stuff and nothing else, just because $AverageJoe thinks that (s)he knows best what's good for $Government.
(I admit this is quite similar to "Let's invade country X to show them how they should run their country no matter what we all don't know and understand about their society and real needs, because we know we're right and we can do it! Hell yeah!")

If the petition was about open standards *in general* I could agree at least. But the "it's cheaper" argument is rather weak especially when there is no given proof for the statement. [Citation needed]