FAA FURLOUGHS CAUSE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DISRUPTION

USPA NEWS - The furloughs have resulted in slower air traffic in major cities, as well as delays and disruptions across the country causing both economic and political disruption. Have personal political agendas and lack of compromise resulted in an all out guerrilla war between this nations politicians?

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On April 23, 2013, in News Releases, by Staff
Governor Scott said, “Today is day three of FAA furloughs. Planes are being delayed and backups are mounting; still, no word from the President in response to our call to immediately end FAA furloughs..."

Kentucky Republican Rep. Hal Rogers said “This imperial attitude “¦ on the part of the administration is disgusting“

Huerta said “I agree this is no way to run a government.“

Let us take another objective review...

Over $600 million of these cuts will need to come from the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency that controls and manages our nation´s skies. As a result of these cuts, the vast majority of FAA´s nearly 47,000 employees will be furloughed for approximately one day per pay period until the end of the fiscal year, and in some cases it could be as many as two days.“ ~Secretary Ray LaHood, White House briefing, Feb. 22, 2013

“In the Department of Transportation´s budget, and members of Congress will point out hundreds of millions of dollars on consulting contracts, on travel. Let´s not cut the air traffic controllers first, let´s go cut the waste.“ ~Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), NBC´s “Meet the Press,“ Feb. 24

“The furlough of a large number of air traffic controllers and technicians would require a reduction in air traffic to a level that could be safely managed by the remaining staff, resulting in slower air traffic in major cities, as well as delays and disruptions across the country during the critical summer travel season,“ says an administration statement. Huerta testified that the agency has made efforts to reduce the impact of sequester on Americans, including “drastically“ reducing overtime. The FAA warned of more flight delays Wednesday “as a result of employee furloughs due to sequestration.“ FAA officials have said they have no choice but to furlough all 47,000 agency employees, including nearly 15,000 controllers, and close 149 contract air traffic control towers to meet obligations under the sequester, which cuts the agency budget by roughly $600 million this year. The FAA´s budget has soared, but air traffic has declined since the Great Recession. Why is more money needed for less? Republicans Stated in rebuttal. Confused? “There´s a lot of dramatics going on,“ said Spencer Dickerson of the American Association of Airport Executives. 71 percent of FAA operations money goes to pay controllers, supervisors, air safety inspectors and technicians. When having high personnel costs has to cut about 5 to 8 percent of its annual budget in just seven months it starts with cutting personnel.

Geist also brought up the political "blame game" in Washington over the sequester and actually noted GOP criticism of the White House: "Members of the Senate, Republicans blaming President Obama, saying he actually wanted this to force someone's hand in all of this."

"Ambushes on key transportation routes are a hallmark of guerrilla operations, causing both economic and political disruption." ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_and_tactics_of_guerrilla_warfare

The furloughs have resulted in slower air traffic in major cities, as well as delays and disruptions across the country causing both economic and political disruption. Have personal political agendas and lack of compromise resulted in an all out guerrilla war between this nations politicians? "You didn't inform the Congress of this sequester impact, and what you planned to do about it," Rogers charged. "In fact, the entire administration has done the same thing. ... This imperial attitude on the part of the administration -- and you're the most recent example of that imperialism -- is disgusting." On Tuesday, airports across the country saw more than 1,025 delays that were "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough," according to an FAA statement. "There were more than 975 additional delays as a result of weather and other factors," the agency said.

While legislators continued to gaslight the administration for inflicting unnecessary pain on Americans, Rogers did admit that Congress' original intent regarding sequestration was to make the cuts painful, since the legislation was created as a tool to force lawmakers to come up with something better. Huerta should have provided better ideas to airlines sooner.

A hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation illustrated the tension some in Washington are feeling in light of the delays. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers engaged FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in a heated back-and-forth, claiming the agency did not give those in the aviation industry and in Congress enough time to plan for these cuts.

We all know it. We all know it. The sequester, by the way, or "seekester," as pronounced by Sheila Jackson Lee from your state, from Houston, the sequester is Obama's idea. They're trying to blame the Republicans for it, but the sequester as a strategy, as a procedure, the sequester was Barack Obama's idea. Now, the decision here, the FAA, which is the Obama regime, to reduce air traffic controllers, is to blame Republicans. This is all political. This is an effort -- you know it, I know it, everybody in this audience knows it -- it is an effort to have low-information people get ticked off over flight delays and crowded airplanes and all the other things that happen when there are aircraft slowdowns, airline slowdowns, so that they end up blaming Republicans for this, because everything is about 2014. ~RUSH LIMBAUGH

POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL PROPAGANDA

Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public of mass-produced communication designed to affect the minds and emotions of a given group for a specific purpose, whether military, economic, or political. ~Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony

“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." ~Winston Churchill

Propaganda in totalitarian regimes is easy to recognize for its blatant and crude methods. In democratic societies, on the other hand, propaganda is often disguised. In a nation where the public is required to think and act according to the collective good of society, the use of blatant propaganda would most likely not be questioned.

In a nation with free will and thought, however, things aren´t so simple. The use of propaganda must be sneaky and disguised. If blatant propaganda were used in such a country, there would be such a reaction from the public that the government would suffer. Given this, it is imperative that propaganda in a democratic nation be of a different nature.

Propaganda agents generally attempt to relay their message with as few sources as possible, as to avoid confusion and contradiction. The propagandist also tends to separate himself from the audience as he assumes a position of superiority.

With this in mind, it is important to distinguish between the three different types of propaganda; white, grey, and black. White propaganda, associated with overt psychological operations, is issued from a credible source. Propaganda of the grey sort does not specifically name a reference. Black propaganda, the most evil kind, pretends to be from a source other than the true one, a tactic used for covert psychological operations. The main objective for propaganda is to unite behind the belief that what is being done is in the best interest of everyone. To achieve this, the opponent must be demonized by certain principles, which at the same token, are not used to judge the self. This, inevitably, leads to questions regarding the double standard and hypocrisy of their methods. “The most effective propaganda relies on framing rather than on falsehood. By bending the truth rather than breaking it, using emphasis and other auxiliary embellishments, communicators can create a desired impression without resorting to explicit advocacy and without departing too far from the appearance of objectivity.“ (Michael Parenti, political scientist)

In fact, as DailyKos reported, a poll last month by ABC and Washington Post found that 47% blame Republicans for sequester, and 33% blame President Obama. The previous poll was 45-32 Republicans to blame.

People are beginning to notice the Obama administration´s cynical strategy to inflict the most damaging cuts possible under his sequester. The facts are starting to come out, and as the Wall Street Journal notes, “the story gets worse the closer we look.“

Via the WSJ:

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.

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.

They sum it all up:

It is actively creating even more delays, cancellations and missed connections in order to incite a public outcry on behalf of bigger government.

The President´s strategy is clear: use his sequester´s painful cuts to scare Americans into thinking cutting spending is bad. Unfortunately for the President, that requires convincing Americans that there is no waste whatsoever in the federal government that could be cut instead.

Did anyone notice that there has not been a budget passed for the first 4 years Obama took office? For the first time in history?

If these are the ideas and presented solutions for fiscal responsibility by Barrack Obama then how can it be viewed as such while the American people and the economy suffer the effects?

"As a result of the administration's poor planning and, I would argue, political motives, thousands of people were stuck on tarmacs over the past few days," McConnell said. "The FAA's mismanagement of this issue is a source of bipartisan frustration. Our goal here shouldn't be to score political points on the backs of weary travelers; it should be to fix the problem."

McConnell called on Mr. Obama and the FAA "to be smarter and more transparent about the sequester," arguing, "not all government spending is created equally." White House spokesman Jay Carney countered that only Congress has the ability to reverse course on the furloughs by shifting resources, but pointed out that because 70 percent of the FAA's budget deals with personnel, "there is simply no way to avoid furloughs."

Barrack Obama forced his medical coverage termed "Obama Care", but let us see that blame shift again...

On the weekend Jack Lew, who has just been named Barack Obama's chief of staff after serving as his budget director, defended the Senate by saying it couldn't pass a budget without 60 votes, i.e. without the cooperation of some Republicans. Republicans jumped on Mr Lew, pointing out that under Congress' budget procedure, a budget resolution cannot be filibustered and thus only needs a simple majority vote - typically 51 votes - to pass. Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post's fact checker, awarded Mr Lew four Pinocchios, the top score, for fibbing. ~Feb 15th 2012, 22:36 by G.I. | WASHINGTON D.C.

So yes, the Senate could pass a budget resolution, but without the cooperation of the house or 60 votes, that resolution would not take effect; it would be an empty gesture. The fact that the House managed to pass a budget last year, including a major overhaul of Medicare, reflects its different rules that allow it to deem the budget resolution to have taken effect. But it didn't ultimately matter: the provisions in its budget, including the Medicare changes, were not binding on the Senate.

Aren't you glad you asked?

"It is, long-term, a cost to the nation, and I think that all we're doing is enabling the administration to do what we think it can do right now, but says it can't," Blumenthal said of the furloughs. "I believe the administration ought to postpone these furloughs at least for 30 days to give the congress an opportunity to act. As a member of the Commerce Committee, I think that our authority certainly would permit a more flexible and effective response to sequestration requirements."

The Senate can provide that solution but have blamed the house.

Who caused this fiasco or better yet whose idea were the cuts?

In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama said that we must invest in the true engine of America´s economic growth ““ a rising and thriving middle class.

However,

“Did I hear you correctly say that you first gave the airlines and airports and the infrastructure notice of how this thing was going to be applied last Wednesday?“ Rogers asked Huerta.
“No,“ Huerta said. “What I said was that we provided notification to them of the general impact ““ “
Rogers cut him off.
“I´m not worried about general impact. I want you to tell us when you told them the details of which airports at what times “¦ would have trouble. Now that was last Wednesday as I understand it.
“ Tuesday,“ Huerta said.

“Last Tuesday, pardon me. Which was a few days before it went into effect,“ Rogers clarified.
“That´s correct,“ said Huerta.

At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said that if Congress "wants to address specifically the problems caused by the sequester with the FAA, we would be open to looking at that.
"But that would be a Band-Aid measure," he added. "And it would not deal with the many other negative effects of the sequester, the kids kicked off of Head Start, the seniors who aren't getting Meals on Wheels, and the up to three-quarter of a million of Americans who will lose their jobs or will not have jobs created for them."

http://transportation.house.gov/obama-administrations-and-faas-furlough-plans

The Obama Administration's and FAA's Furlough Plans

On Sunday, April 21, 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chose to begin furloughing air traffic controllers and all other employees in order to implement sequestration and meet required savings of five percent. Although the Administration knew about the potential for sequestration since November 2011, it waited until April 16, 2013 ““ just days before the furloughs were set to begin ““ to inform Congress and U.S. airlines of its plans and warn that major delays could result.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta issued a list of cities that could experience delays of up to more than two hours due to furloughs. Although the FAA has stated it has flexibility to reduce costs in other ways, it has chosen a very public and painful way to implement sequestration.

President Obama had been warning about the fallout of the $85 billion of automatic cuts for months and proposed a replacement in his 2014 budget. The sequester was authorized under the 2011 Budget Control Act with Obama´s blessing, but he subsequently argued that the across the board cuts would do too much damage to defense and domestic programs and called for a replacement that included tax increases.

The sequester was authorized under the 2011 Budget Control Act with Obama´s blessing.

Lets review:

When Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood appeared on network and cable television last week and told Americans to expect massive delays at airports because of a “disaster“ caused by the sequester, he accomplished two things: He scared travelers who were told that air-traffic controllers would be laid off, and he gave the airline business heartburn over potential revenue losses.

LaHood was one of a dozen cabinet members in the Obama administration who appeared in the media to make the case to abandon the budget cuts imposed by the sequester, a plan agreed upon by the president.

"Ambushes on key transportation routes are a hallmark of guerrilla operations, causing both economic and political disruption."

The main objective for propaganda is to unite behind the belief that what is being done is in the best interest of everyone. To achieve this, the opponent must be demonized by certain principles, which at the same token, are not used to judge the self. This, inevitably, leads to questions regarding the double standard and hypocrisy of their methods. “The most effective propaganda relies on framing rather than on falsehood. By bending the truth rather than breaking it such as the blame game.

Diversion?

The Obama Administration has put forward an opening bid in what are sure to be contentious 2014 budget negotiations, issuing a solidly progressive transportation budget that calls for increased overall spending and continued investment in passenger rail.

The $76 billion transportation budget would represent a 5.5 percent, or $4 billion, spending increase over 2012 levels.

In addition, the president repeated his call for $50 billion in stimulus-style funding in 2014.

Hidden agenda? or just coincidence?

To be noted Governor Rick Scott shot down the rail.

Why not fix the FAA first? Bad policies and decisions? Pointing the blame at everyone else?

It reminds this reporter of an old childhood saying "while you are pointing your finger at someone else 4 more are pointing back at you".

This has been another objective review by The Objective Review.