Will flight delays stir up ire against sequester?

Christian Science Monitor ^ | 23 Apr 13 | Patrik Jonsson

[SkyPilot]

Rolling flight delays. Cancellations. Heavy sighs and grim smirks in packed airport concourses. Has the sequester, Washington’s much-debated automatic spending cut package, finally landed?

In response to the sequester deal struck by President Obama and Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration this weekend began to furlough its entire 47,000-person workforce (including 13,000 air traffic controllers) to abide by some $637 billion in automatic spending cuts that have to be made by October. The cutbacks mean each employee has to stay at home, unpaid, one day every other week.

The furloughs had an immediate impact on travel on Monday, contributing to two-hour delays at some key airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia in New York, as well as airports in Philadelphia; Los Angeles; Charlotte, N.C.; and Orlando, Fla. But though delays may again build throughout Tuesday, most problems early in the day – especially in New York – were tied to weather, particularly high winds, though experts said that could change as Tuesday wears on and delays pile up.

The question at the heart of the sequester debate, which is tied to a far broader debate about the role and cost of government itself, is whether a moderate curtailment of government spending would sow discomfort, if not disaster, for American families.

And as the FAA's employees are some key government intermediaries to many Americans, the looming delays this week may hold clues as to how the sequester will finally play out: Will lawmakers have to cave and send the FAA some supplementary cash, or will dire predictions turn out to be rather milquetoast, giving fiscal conservatives a big win?

[SkyPilot]

From another article:

But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he warned of furloughs at a White House news conference Feb. 22, and that Congress has not acted. The FAA had to cut $637 million because of a spending impasse between Congress and the administration, and LaHood said there was no way to avoid furloughs.

"We're getting a lot of inquiries from Congress and people are trying to figure out how to fix this," LaHood said. "As is the case with Congress, they wait until the 11th hour. It's time for them to fix this."

Michael Huerta, the head of the FAA, said the agency has few options. Furloughs reduce spending $200 million, leaving another $437 million to cut from contracts such as closing towers at 149 small airports and reducing training and information technology, he said.

"We've used all the flexibility we have," Huerta said. "Congress needs to come together and resolve the whole sequester issue."

________________________________________________________________

The entire Sequester is a political mess, and the Republicans thought they outsmarted themselves by doing a complete 180 degree turn in January and "embraced" the Sequester that they themselves ran against in November.

Now, the GOP has painted itself into a political corner.

Has Obama politicized the issue? You bet - a perfect example is Dyke Napolitano releasing thousands of illegals hours after the Sequester went into effect.

Have Republicans politicized the issue? You bet!

They have been out there spinning on talk radio for weeks now, and have most libertarians and conservatives gang loaded to repeat the mantra that this is "only a 2.4% to the entire Federal budget!"

The problem with that spin is that it ignores the fact that Entitlements (which compromise 63% of all Federal spending) are exempt from Sequestration. Only discretionary spending was hit - not Food Stamps, not cash payment checks to individuals, not Medicaid, none of that. Only a small part of Medicare was affected, and that was only a small portion of reimbursement to providers (but to their horror, Congress has discovered that many cancer patients are not getting the drugs they need covered during because of the complexities of Medicare)!

The only way the "2.4%" myth passes logic is if you failed 4th grad math and you cannot grasp the logic that when you exempt 63% of all spending, the other 37% of the budget takes 100% of all the cuts.

Every agency took a 6% cut across the board, except Defense, which took an even greater 9% cut in the middle of fiscal year, which due to the delay of sequestration made it a 13% cut. Furthermore, only some monies could be taken from Defense, so Operations and Maintenance accounts are down 50-80%.

The FAA is not playing game or politics here - they were handed a garbage sandwhich by Congress and the President, and like Defense, they are pawns to the political war going on over taxes and Entitlements.

Almost every single political report about Sequestration will tell you the same thing: "Congressional Republicans say there is little enthusiasm about reversing the Sequestration cuts."

Great. Just great. Politico also reported Republicans are so afraid of "upsetting" seniors over Medicare that they are willing to watch agencies burn, including the military, rather than enact Entitlement reform, which is what they said they wanted to begin with!

Great job Congress.

Obama is a Marxist homosexual, but he was smart enough to give the Republicans more rope to hang themselves with selling Sequestration as this "great thing." It isn't.

It does nothing to tackle the real drivers of our debt and deficit - exploding Entitlements. 10,000 people a day are joining the retirement ranks. We have 90 Million Americans not in the work force. We have records numbers on Food Stamps and unemployment. We have doubled the number of Social Security Disability takers in just 3 years.

Now, Paul Ryan does not even want a Conference (as called for by law) to resolve the House and Senate budget versions. Why?

He doesn't want to deal with taxes.

So Congress complains (correctly) that the Senate had not passed a budget since the IPad went into production. It finally passes a budget, and Ryan goes running for the hills.

Republicans shout "Obama got his revenue during the Fiscal Cliff negotiations!"

OK - if that was so, then why was Sequestration ignored by the GOP controlled House until the 12th hour - and then only to delay for only 60 days?

And what happened to that revenue? They spent the entire first year's tax increase and gave it to Chris "Traitor" Christie, Mayor "Mao" Bloomberg, and Gov Comrade Cuomo in the form of the Hurricane Sandy pork bill.

Wow. Just wow.

Do yourself a favor GOP - pass a real 2014 budget and end the stupidity.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

That’s the plan, right?

[central_va]

Not buying it, the FAA could have cut elsewhere, it is all Bull Caca.

[SkyPilot]

Not buying it, the FAA could have cut elsewhere

Tell me specifically where and what.

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

Exactly. 0bama is milking the sequester for maximum punishment possible on American citizens. Holding US hostage so that Congress gives him carte blanche again to fast track his binge spending aimed at bankruptcy. He’s also targeted all military activities that evoke national patriotism such as Air Shows, Fleet week, etc. Drawing down flight squadrons is downright dangerous and should be LAST on his list of targets, not FIRST. It’s passive aggressive terrorism on Americans is what it is, in true Muslim style.

[central_va]

Specifically, operations is maybe 60% of the FAA budget. So cut somewhere else. No they went high profile and you bought it hook line a sinker.

[upchuck]

Tell me specifically where and what.

According to this article posted here on FR:

[South Dakota Sen. John] Thune called the cuts “unnecessary,” and listed other areas the agency could cut that wouldn’t affect air controllers, such as its $541 million yearly budget for consulting contracts, $179 million budget for travel expenses, and $134 million budget for office supplies.

“You would think that there would be more priority items that they could choose to cut,” he said.

[bigheadfred]

Dump TSA and feed the some of that 7.5 billion into the FAA.

BTW, there is another thread around here telling of specific cuts. Like consulting.

[bigheadfred]

Thanks for linking that.

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

Give me a break. You could cut just about ANY federal agency and have it be completely transparent to the average person. For example, there are OVER 200,000 DHS employees.. WTF? That’s OVER 4,000 PER STATE. Talk about BLOATED..

[hal ogen]

These idiot government managers do this all the time at all levels. First it is cut police and fire and anything else they think might make it difficult for the taxpayer. Then they hope we’ll beg for more taxes on us. What a bunch of duplicitous morons. They should all be in jail. Maybe they could cut some of their precious “programs” or maybe cut their overly-generous retirements. They disgust me...I spit in their faces. Anyway, this sequester (nobama’s idea) only was a decrease in the amount of increase...NOT A CUT! They hate the taxpayers but love the taxpayers’ money. Freaks all.

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

Old data, but interesting..

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2466363/posts

[okie01]

He’s also targeted all military activities that evoke national patriotism such as Air Shows, Fleet week, etc. Drawing down flight squadrons is downright dangerous and should be LAST on his list of targets, not FIRST. It’s passive aggressive terrorism on Americans is what it is, in true Muslim style.

Given over a year to anticipate a possible sequester, every branch of the service prepared a plan to accommodate it WITHOUT endangering combat-readiness.

When the Secretarys of the Army, Navy and Air Force presented these plans to Defense Secretary Leon Pannetta, they were rejected outright.

As Pannetta explained at the time, "Maintaining combat-readiness is not the point..."

[Jack Hammer]

This whole sequester business is just a scam; it’s a nationwide temper tantrum being thrown by the juvenile delinquent in the White House.

Who, by the way, always seems to find plenty of cash to funnel to his buddies in the Middle East.

[bigheadfred]

Thanks.

[LdSentinal]

Almost every single political report about Sequestration will tell you the same thing: "Congressional Republicans say there is little enthusiasm about reversing the Sequestration cuts."

And nor should there be.

The Sequester will cost the Unions hundreds of millions of dollars worth of union dues.

[bigheadfred]

BTTT

[SkyPilot]

Sen Thune is spewing PR boob bait for the bubbas.

Here is the entire FAA budget in detail.

http://www.dot.gov/sites/dot.dev/files/docs/faa_%20fy_%202013_budget_estimate.pdf

Congress approved this very budget themselves through appropriations! They knew exactly what was in it. The "consulting contracts" language he used makes it sound there are bunch of pipe smokers sitting around spending hundreds of millions on dreams and vision statements. He knows this isn't the case.

Moreover, like every agency, the FAA has slashed travel and overhead.

Furloughs are the only choice given the nature of Sequester, which mandated by law that the cuts be across the board and draconian in nature. Congress (including the Republicans) sold the 2011 Budget Control Act, the Sequester, and the feckless "Super Committee" to the American people as that being the plan - the cuts were designed to be across the board.

Let me be even more specific: in terms of the Dept of Defense, they cannot touch military pay or most procurement contracts because by law, the dollars that have already been awarded have to be paid or else the contractor can go to court and have the government pay penalties. So furloughs of shipyard workers, nurses, and maintainers had to happen.

DoD has lessened the furloughs from 22 to 14 days, but that was only because Congress knew it screwed the military with paying 50% of ALL the Sequester cuts (despite being 17% of the budget), so when it passed the Continuing Resolution it restored $10.4 Billion into the belegured O&M cuts - but Congress left Sequester in place so DoD got less than 1/4 of what it needed for O&M for the rest of the fiscal year. The military suspended tuition assistance for our military heroes, and when Congress felt the political heat, the Senate included "language" in the bill that the military had to pay that out again.

Due to the law, the military has to ask for reprogramming of previous Congressionally approved appropriations. The military is asking for that again, to pay for our deployment of ships off South Korea, the war in Afghanistan, and other operations.

And Congress knows all of this - they approved the monies based on the requirements. Now, they are playing dumb and saying it is all "fat?"

Give me a break.

Do you know how much money Congress restored to pay for tuition assistance?

Zero. None. Zilch.

They simply talked a big game, and came up short (again) in funding due to the political game that is Sequestration.

Great leadership there, wasn't it?

There is lots of blame to go around here. Of course I blame Obama - he is destroying this nation. But the Republicans better wake up and get their heads out of the sand and stop pretending this is a game and a sideshow.

If they want to be leaders, then they should lead and stop sitting on their hands.

[SkyPilot]

Dump TSA and feed the some of that 7.5 billion into the FAA.

That is fine with me.

They do nothing for security - it is all "theater."

Do you know why the Republicans will never de-fund the TSA?

They are too afraid of the political fallout of being blamed in case there is even one small terrorism incident on an aircraft in the future.

There's political courage for you.

There are stupid Federal agencies, and there are valid ones.

The FAA, the DoD, and others are valid.

The TSA, the Dept of Education, and the Dept of Health and Human Services are Federal welfare agencies.

Moreover, if you ask the some of the same "conservatives" around here if all Federal spending is bad - they will stand up on top of their chair and shout "Yes!" Then you ask them if we should slow the growth of Social Security COLAs or Medicare, and they will go after you with a straight razor.

Hypocrisy abounds here.

[DJ MacWoW]

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