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Maximum Pain for Political Gain in America’s Airports

Two million people fly through America’s airports on an average day, and it’s often not the most pleasant experience under normal conditions. But in deliberately causing the sequester cuts to disrupt the air traffic control system as much as possible, President Obama is betting most of these two million people (and the many more Americans watching the delays on TV) will endure the pain believing we can’t cut any spending at all without causing utter chaos.

With years of ballooning spending and scandalous waste under this administration, however, Americans have enough common sense to know that virtually every government agency can absorb a mere 5% spending reduction without cutting anything essential.

In fact, it’s clear that most people think the government could stand a lot more than a 5% cut. A 2011 Gallup poll found “Americans estimate that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every dollar it spends.”

Americans are exactly right to doubt government is doing everything it can to use taxpayers’ money effectively. When in recent years the Army hired private-sector experts in a cost cutting method called Lean Six Sigma, it reduced costs by approximately $22 billion, mostly eliminating waste in its supply chain.

The rest of the federal government could surely show a little more initiative in distinguishing the critical expenditures from those that can wait.

Take for example the Department of Transportation. As the Wall Street Journal noted this week, the DOT posted an announcement on its homepage Monday about the nearly half-billion dollars in funding for an initiative to help “make communities more livable and sustainable.” The program, designed to fund “projects that will have a significant impact on the nation,” originated as part of the stimulus package in 2009.

Apparently a functioning air traffic control system does not qualify as such a project. At least, it seems the Department of Transportation saw no contradiction between the announcement that more stimulus-style funding was available and the administration’s insistence that nothing could be done to avoid the air traffic control delays.

In fact, the amount allocated to this one program alone would make up for most of the sequester reduction at the FAA.

Chairman Bill Shuster, who heads the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has pointed out that the FAA spends $500 million a year on outside consultants who could be reevaluated before furloughing a single air traffic controller. It spends $325 million on “supplies and travel” for its employees, and another $143 million a year operating its 46 aircraft. All of these are items that should be meticulously examined for savings before disrupting the lives of millions of people.

Republicans have offered President Obama the authority to make exactly those types of easy choices in implementing the sequester cuts, but instead he’s chosen the path that causes maximum pain to the American people.

He insists there is no way to accommodate a 5 percent reduction in the FAA budget despite the fact that spending on the FAA has nearly doubled since 2000, while the number of flights has dropped by 27%.

By playing games with critical services in his effort to raise taxes, the President also draws Americans’ attention to the abundant waste we’re already paying for. Republicans should seize on this contradiction by soliciting suggestions from federal employees in agencies like the FAA for cutting costs without furloughing them and causing unnecessary pain. The stories they would surface would be amazing.

If you agree that it’s time to ground the bureaucrats, not to ground the flights, sign our petition at SaveAirTravelNow.com to demand that President Obama use common sense to save money so no flight is delayed or cancelled because of politics.

New at Newt University - Exploring Mars

When astronauts first landed on the moon more than 40 years ago, millions of Americans surely thought they might have the opportunity to one day go into space themselves. Certainly, many expected a trip to Mars to be the next step.

In the second decade of the 21st Century, however, the United States has made little progress toward further space exploration. In this interview at Newt University, I sit down with Chris Carberry of Explore Mars to talk about why.

We discuss the current state of the private space industry, the roadblocks that have stalled past efforts to get humans to the Red Planet, and some surprising results in Explore Mars' recent public opinion surveys.

Click here to take this short course for free.

Your Friend,
Newt


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