Posted on 04/25/2013 8:45:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As travellers nationwide are learning, the White House has decided to express its dislike of the sequester—otherwise known as modestly smaller government—by choosing to cut basic air traffic control services. We wrote about this human- rights violation on Tuesday in "Flight Delays as Political Strategy," but the story gets worse the closer we look.
Start with the Federal Aviation Administration, better known as the Postal Service without the modern technology. Flyers directly fund two-thirds of the FAA's budget through 17 airline taxes and fees—about 20% of the cost of a $300 domestic ticket, up from 7% in the 1970s. Yet now the White House wants to make this agency that can't deliver what passengers are supposedly paying for even more dysfunctional.
Ponder this logic, if that's the right word: The sequester cuts about $637 million from the FAA, which is less than 4% of its $15.9 billion 2012 budget, and it limits the agency to what it spent in 2010. The White House decided to translate this 4% cut that it has the legal discretion to avoid into a 10% cut for air traffic controllers. Though controllers will be furloughed for one of every 10 working days, four of every 10 flights won't arrive on time.
The FAA projects the delays will rob one out of every three travellers of up to four hours of their lives waiting at the major hubs. Congress passed a law in 2009 that makes such delays illegal, at least if they are the responsibility of an airline. Under President Obama's "passenger bill of rights," the carriers are fined millions of dollars per plane that sits on the tarmac for more than three hours. But sauce for the goose is apparently an open bar for the FAA gander.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The White House claims the sequester applies to the budget category known as “projects, programs and activities” and thus it lacks flexibility. Not so: This is a political pose to make the sequester more disruptive. Legally speaking, the sequester applies at a more general level known as “accounts.” The air traffic account includes 15,000 controllers out of 31,000 employees. The White House could keep the controllers on duty simply by allocating more furlough days to these other non-essential workers.
Instead, the FAA is even imposing the controller furlough on every airport equally, not prioritizing among the largest and busiest airports. San Francisco’s Napa Valley airport with no commercial service will absorb the same proportion of the cuts as the central New York radar terminal, which covers La Guardia, JFK and Newark International, as well as MacArthur, Teterboro, New Haven, Republic and other regional fields.
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..except for DC
I’m flying out of O’Hare this morning and there are no delays. Security was quick.
One of the great unsung triumphs of government is the repeal of the law diminishing returns. Here is another example. A 4% cut in the FAA budget results in a 40% cut in service. Does this mean with an 8% increase in the FAA budget we will see negative 40% of flights delayed?
We know this FAA furlough of controllers is fake but the majority of the public has no idea and believe the communists MSM and Democrats that it is the sequester. They win, we lose again. Never get the Senate and will be lucky to hold the House. We have no way to win. Sorry for the good news but reality must hurt.
Budget reduced: 4%
Controllers furloughed: 10%
Flights delayed: 40%
These are the same people trying to balance a budget.
I have a relative who works in the Park Service. She says they are stopping tours and closing some facilities, but no one had been laid off and no work stoppage has happened. If they are asked about the closed facilities or tour suspension they were told to say it is because of sequester.
With an 8% increase in the FAA budget we will see 40% of flights arrive early and no lost bags ever!
Heard yesterday that pilots are complaining that controllers are also staging a “work slowdown.”
“Instead, the FAA is even imposing the controller furlough on every airport equally, not prioritizing among the largest and busiest airports. San Francisco’s Napa Valley airport with no commercial service will absorb the same proportion of the cuts as the central New York radar terminal, which covers La Guardia, JFK and Newark International, as well as MacArthur, Teterboro, New Haven, Republic and other regional fields. For all of its rough edges, the sequester is proving to be educational. It is showing Americans how broken so much of government is, and it is revealing how our politicians refuse to distinguish between essential services and needless waste.”
Decades ago the joke about communism involved the factory within the Soviet Union that made only left footed shoes…like six million left footed shoes. Whether it is true or not was never proven but there were several possible reasons heard years ago in a Soviet history class. One version was that the machinery that made the right shoe broke down but the company had its central planning quotas to meet so it simply kept producing only left shoes. Meeting quotas trumped common sense. Obviously this was a comment on the problems of a planned economy and it couldn’t happen here. But now we see under this administration socialist approach it would happen here and we will end up with six million left footed shoes.
This is the question no one seems to be asking - if a reduction of the fed govt’s budget increase can shutdown so many services, what exactly is the rest of the money being spent on exactly?
Solution for inept government incapable of providing basic airport services - Privatize!
Todays flight delays in CA: http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/swmap.jsp and the entire USA: http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp. From the last map you can select region or airport.
Hold mouse pointer over the colored dots and it will tell you what the delay is.
The headline asks the right questions:
How does a 4% reduction in the rate of budget increase lead to a 10% reduction in hours of the most vital employees to the ATC system, and in turn lead to 40% slip in on-time flights?
The numbers only add up if you add the malevolent intent of the brass at the FAA. They are deliberately harming the passengers. Something really, really bad may happen in the air.
They are punishing the people. On purpose.
It’s basically a hostage situation. they won’t allow airports to go private. And why not? So they can cut off our travel unless we give them more money.
RE: Solution for inept government incapable of providing basic airport services - Privatize!
It isn’t really ineptness if you look at it. It’s DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO TEACH PEOPLE A LESSON FOR VOTING REPUBLICAN.
This Gov't is looking for ways to maximize irritation to the public. They are angry that the ones who pay the bills are siphoning off their funds and taking retribution wherever possible. Another example: WH tours.
Its like going to the barber to get a hair cut, and the barber decides to remove the hair next to the scalp first.
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