so now it's been one month since ''sequestering''

[OCinBuffalo]

In other words...you still have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Keukasmallies]

Certainly not equating longer waits at the airport with assisting a nation seeking freedom from oppression; just wondering where the extra $ comes from in this era of sequestration cuts....?

 

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/21/17844366-kerry-us-to-double-non-lethal-aid-to-syrian-opposition?lite

 

POTUS, enough already, we got the point: You're grinding us!!

[B-Man]

Another Washington Monument Syndrome: The FAA's Furloughs

 

Recently newspapers have been running stories about the impact that sequestration will have on& the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the air-traffic-control system in particular. The furloughs of air-traffic controllers are supposed to start today. The Wall Street Journal reports that the FAA has told airlines the furloughs could delay as many as 6,700 flights per day at 13 airports, and USA Today notes that Michael Huerta, Administator of the FAA, said that in order to prevent planes from “stacking up during busy times” at key hubs, the FAA will “ground planes at their originating airports or order them to take circuitous routes.”

 

The agency claims it has no choice but to furlough people. Huerta and Transportation Secretary LaHood “said they have no choice but to cut controller staffing by 10 percent, which will reduce how many planes airports can handle.” But this may not actually be true, and the FAA has actually a lot of flexibility but may simply not want to exercise it. Check out this press release from Senator John Thune (R., S.D.) on flexibility from a recent hearing:

In addition, after weeks of claims by Secretary LaHood and Administrator Huerta that the Administration has no flexibility in the implementation of the spending reductions, Administrator Huerta walked back claims under direct questioning on the issue by Ranking Member Thune at the hearing.

Administrator Huerta admitted that the FAA has the flexibility under current law to transfer up to two percent of funding from one activity to another without Congressional action.

Also, under direct questioning,

Administrator Huerta admitted the FAA has the authority to request reprogramming of funds which could lessen the safety impact of certain sequestration cuts that the FAA is currently working to implement.

[Koko78]

 

 

Unfortunately the FAA reallocating funds to minimize loss of controllers is not in the best interests of the administration's dictate that the sequester be made as painful and annoying as possible for the average American, for political gain.

 

It's hard to demonize the GOP and demand more spending when the average person isn't feeling any impact from the doomsday cuts that the President suggested.

[Nanker]

This is "Mommy Management 101". Congress was bad. We're all forced to sit in a corner, and there will be no recess, no extracurricular activities allowed, and no government official will lift a finger to help a citizen outside the prescribed work rules - which are hastily being rewritten.

 

BO is a petulant ****.

[B-Man]

Flight Delays as Political Strategy

 

The FAA furloughs traffic controllers rather than cut other spending.

 

 

President Obama's sequester scare strategy has been a political flop, but his government keeps trying. The latest gambit is to force airline flight delays until enough travellers stuck on tarmacs browbeat enough Republicans to raise taxes again.

 

This week the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began furloughing each of its air-traffic controllers for one day out of every 10 to achieve roughly $600 million in savings this fiscal year. The White House dubiously claims that the furloughs are required by the sequester spending cuts enacted in 2011.

 

Capitol Hill Republicans say the White House is free to make other cuts instead. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster suggests the FAA first take a whack at the $500 million it's spending on consultants, or perhaps the $325 million it blows on supplies and travel.

 

In case there's any doubt about the President's ability to prioritize, at least two GOP Senators, Jerry Moran and Roy Blunt, have written bills to clarify Mr. Obama's authority to make sensible spending decisions. He's not interested, and Senate Democrats have blocked such reforms. Making smart choices about federal sending would spoil the fun of creating flight delays and then blaming Republicans.

 

So this week the FAA has managed to turn the first stages of a 5% budget cut into hours of delays at the nation's airports. The furloughs are landing on air-traffic controllers as much as they are on less vital FAA jobs. Officials at the Department of Transportation, the FAA's parent bureaucracy, say it would be bad for morale to impose heavier furloughs on the employees who don't direct airplanes. DOT has also ruled out any reductions in the FAA workforce to achieve the needed savings, along with most other obvious options that a private business would explore.

 

http://online.wsj.co...Opinion_LEADTop

[Joe Miner]

It's called extortion.

 

Looks like time well spent and lessons learned in Chicago from this administration.

[B-Man]

It's called extortion.

 

Looks like time well spent and lessons learned in Chicago from this administration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's kind of odd that the FAA can’t manage its operations with a budget comparative to that of only a few years ago while air-traffic levels have declined, no?

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

Edited April 24, 2013 by B-Man

[B-Man]

One more:

 

The Manufactured Sequester Crisis

 

I just landed in New York from Washington. As we landed, on time according to my itinerary, the pilot apologized for the delays caused by the sequester cuts and their impact on traffic controllers. The people around me seemed very unconvinced by the announcement. I’ve written before about the FAA’s sequester strategy and its resulting impact on a large number of employees and public. Interestingly, the Washington Timesreportsthis morning about e-mails that show that the administration seems to be instructing agencies to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible:

In the internal email, Animal and

Plant Health Inspection Service

official

Charles Brown

said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts

Congress

had been warned of.

“We have gone on record with a notification to

Congress

and whoever else that ‘

APHIS

would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the

costs

.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,”

Mr. Brown

, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.

Neither

Mr. Brown

nor the main

APHIS

office in Washington returned

calls

seeking comment, but Agriculture Secretary

Thomas J. Vilsack

, who oversees the agency, told

Congress

he is trying to give flexibility where he can.

 

Also, DHS secretary Janet Napolitano has been exposed for falsely claiming that LAX, among other airports, was experiencing long delays because of the cuts, despite the lack of evidence for such slowdowns.

 

 

 

 

I guess the administration assumed this wouldn’t backfire. Maybe if the American people come to realize the White House may have orchestrated such delays and aggravations, they might start questioning other government interventions in our lives.

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2013 by B-Man

[/dev/null]

I was on a Navy base today and truly understood the extent of the Sequester

 

No White House tours, Delays at the airport, etc

 

Meanwhile, those sailors and civil servants are getting new office furniture. To be fair, that money was most likely spent long before the Sequester at the end of FY12 when they had to either spend what money they had left in the budget or lose that amount from FY13

[DC Tom]

I was on a Navy base today and truly understood the extent of the Sequester

 

No White House tours, Delays at the airport, etc

 

Meanwhile, those sailors and civil servants are getting new office furniture. To be fair, that money was most likely spent long before the Sequester at the end of FY12 when they had to either spend what money they had left in the budget or lose that amount from FY13

 

Office furniture's a capital expenditure that, while I'm not exactly sure how the government allocates it, could very easily have been spent before sequestration.

[B-Man]

Democrats blink first on aviation cuts

 

The White House and Democrats in Congress argued for months against a piecemeal fix to the budget problems caused by the sequester.

 

But on Thursday, Democrats caved in and agreed to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to keep air traffic control towers running at close to full capacity.

 

All it took was a few thousand people standing in line at the airport.

 

The Senate approved a deal late Thursday to ease the FAA's burden following negotiations among both parties and the White House. The House is expected to take up the bill Friday, just before the congressional weeklong recess, so President Barack Obama can sign it.

 

While travelers may be relieved, some Democrats worry about saving the FAA while letting other domestic programs across the government suffer under the automatic budget cuts.

 

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.politico....l#ixzz2RaDQ94Pf

 

 

Edited April 26, 2013 by B-Man

[ExiledInIllinois]

I am not sure why they can't find money for air travel/control... Heck, I knew a month ago that the sequester wasn't gonna impact my job that is appropriated under civil works... One would think air control travel would rank up there too...

[IDBillzFan]

I am not sure why they can't find money for air travel/control... Heck, I knew a month ago that the sequester wasn't gonna impact my job that is appropriated under civil works... One would think air control travel would rank up there too...

 

And if I'm not mistaken, Obama still hasn't signed the bill to shift FAA money because there was a typo in the bill. His lack of leadership was on full display for anyone paying attention to yesterday's press conference. Every question included an answer of "Congress won't let me" and "Congress keeps holding me up."

 

He's getting pounded today from two of his biggest media fans: Maureen Dowd and Dana Milbank.

 

From Millbank:

 

Obama is correct about the dysfunction, and the difficulty of passing even uncontroversial bills. But his stance was frustratingly passive, as if what happens in Congress is out of his hands. It’s the president’s job to lead, and to bang heads if necessary, regardless of any “permission structure.” Obama seemed oddly like a spectator, as if he had resigned himself to a reactive presidency.

 

From Dowd:

 

“But, Jonathan,” he lectured Karl, “you seem to suggest that somehow, these folks over there have no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. That’s their job. They are elected, members of Congress are elected in order to do what’s right for their constituencies and for the American people.”

 

Actually, it is his job to get them to behave. The job of the former community organizer and self-styled uniter is to somehow get this dunderheaded Congress, which is mind-bendingly awful, to do the stuff he wants them to do. It’s called leadership.

 

He still thinks he’ll do his thing from the balcony and everyone else will follow along below. That’s not how it works.

 

MIllbank article here: http://www.washingto...7d84_story.html

 

Dowd article here: http://www.nytimes.c...-lame-duck.html

[/dev/null]

And if I'm not mistaken, Obama still hasn't signed the bill to shift FAA money because there was a typo in the bill.

 

2010: Democrats control Congress. Obama signs massive 2000 page new entitlement into law but we won't know what's in the bill until they pass it

 

2013: Republicans control Cognress. Obama refuses to sign bill over a typo