Post details exactly how Obama is
making the sequester more painful for airline passengers.
"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."
He's doing it on purpose.
"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."
The government has been degrading air traffic control for years.
"…ever since Al Gore launched a training initiative to increase the
productivity of air traffic controllers in 1998, productivity has
continued to fall. A larger workforce is now in charge of a smaller
workload as the number of flights has dropped by 23%."
We're the stupidest people in the world. Privatize air traffic control.
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