John McCain
I've been amused by the complaints about nd Air Traffic Control and how awful it is that the President is selectively attacking the airline industry and the heartland by shuttering the various air traffic control towers around the country. Jackson Brown has a line in The Pretender "I'll be a happy idiot, and struggle for the legal tender..." Well, the Republicans in the House have done this to the nation and there are things more important than missed airline connections to Cousin's Fud's wedding happening. And yet, because that inconvenience touches people who will pick up the phone and call their Congressional Office, the idiots feel that someone has to be responsible. Some one is -- the person or persons who decided that the Sequestration process was a good thing and that they needed to actually implement it because they could. Now, there were Democrats who agreed to this so it could pass, but it was a lousy idea if implemented, but they assumed it was never going to be implemented.. IT WAS INTENTIONALLY A LOUSY IDEA! No fool would let this happen...no fool would let the government default on its debt. No fool would advocate tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the middle class. No fool would cut taxes based on a projected surplus ten years down the road. No fool ....but, a whole confederation of fools are capable of doing what no fool could do.
Curious as to why the sequestration is affecting air travel? Hell, it affects everything, and Congress knew it was going to happen. They just didn't bother to listen to people like the Secretary of Transportation who RUNS THE FAA when he said
""What I'm trying to do is to wake up members of the Congress on the Republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table, offer a proposal so that we don't have to have this kind of calamity in air service in America." LaHood said members of Congress would quickly feel the heat. "Your phones are gonna start ringing off the hook," LaHood predicted. LaHood said a majority of the FAA's 47,000 employees, including air traffic controllers, would face furloughs of one day a week and, in some cases, two days a week, to close a $1 billion hole sequester would create in the Department of Transportation's budget."
He said this in February 2013. In English. Other people said the same sort of stuff. In English. To Congress. The whole concept of sequestration was to present such unpalatable options to Congress that they would find a way to work together to come up with something the nation could live with. Well, fooled us -- not only are the Republicans unable to do arithmetic competently, they don't understand English. Of course, they're busy hiring interns to do the whole sexual exploitation thing, and introducing bills accusing Michelle Obama of planning the Boston bombing and other things of great national importance.
You know, like it or not, we have a government that does a lot of stuff -- could do less, could do more -- but there are things that it has to do. And, laws actually have consequences beyond whether or not the incumbent gets re-elected. Consequences that are far more important. The best argument for campaign finance reform including public financing and spending limits is there...if they're not busy working the phones and do fundraisers, maybe they'll actually ask the simplest of questions -- "What exactly is this going to mean to my constituents?" since the only thing motivating these clowns is whether or not they're going to be primaried or re-elected. John McCain is fairly irate about the Sequestration. He should be, of course...he sees it as unfairly cutting defense; while I am not one to oppose Defense spending, it's taken a lot fewer shots than lots of other programs over the decades. Still, McCain despite his blinders, is on to something when he talks about sequestration. McCain has been talking about this for months, but he's only talked about the effect on Defense. McCain is perturbed that it took the Air Traffic Controller furlough to go into effect for Congress to wake up. Well, one thing these guys have done is make Phil Ochs a real prophet in upsidedownland...Ochs said when introducing his "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me I'm a Liberal!" that "You know what a liberal is? 10% to the left of center in good times...10% to the right of center when it affects him personally. And, now for a lesson in safe logic..." Well, now the Republicans have managed to turn themselves into mirror liberals, pushing for the little guy waiting to take off from Slippery Hollow International for an extra 20 minutes because the GOOBERMENT closed the control towers.
Well, if I thought they'd found Jesus, I'd be ok with this. Everyone is happy to see a sinner repent. But, let's not get excited here and mistake expedience for penance I expect to hear some condescending words directed at McCain by the Republicans in the Senate who are fine with this disaster and think they can blame the President; something might get done on Air Traffic Controllers and some defense cuts; but it's all going to be piecemeal and stupid. The kid depending on the free breakfast subsidized by the DOA or the disabled Vet forced to wait longer by some exponential factor for a rating or the researcher this close, this bloody close to a cure for uterine cancer will just have to wait. The long term unemployed, the kid needing the student loan, the parents whose child was just sent home from Head Start because he lost in a lottery for a seat, the Fertilizer Factory waiting for the fire inspectors and OSHA will all have to wait..."10% to the right of center when,.,,"
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