Say It Ain't So Already

Vote Republican — Put Your Life at Risk

March 25, 2011 at 3:40 PM Leave a comment

Man-oh-man. Republicans have no problem cutting things that put people’s lives in danger (all, by the way, to pay for tax cuts for the rich):

Early Wednesday morning, the controller manning the tower at Reagan National Airport fell asleep. For the second time in as many years, the tower went silent, forcing two jetliners to land without radio contact with the airport. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded to the incident by immediately ordering an examination of scheduling issues at the nation’s airports. “It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical airspace,” he said.

The incident comes just as the House is set to take up a four-year reauthorization of the FAA’s budget, which calls for scaling back the FAA’s funding to 2008 levels. According to Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL), the ranking member of the House Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on aviation, the proposal “could require the agency to furlough hundreds of safety-related employees.”  Former FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, who served from 2002 to 2007, has said that “The prospect is really devastating to jobs and to our future, if we really have to roll back [to 2008 levels] and stop NextGen in its tracks.”

Republicans have defended their draconian budget cuts by arguing that deficit spending is hurting the security of the nation. Many of their cuts, however, from border and port security to the tsunami warning system and now to the FAA’s operational budget, actually put the lives of Americans at risk.

From what I’ve read about the FAA, they’re already operating on a bare-bones budget.

Entry filed under: 2010 Election, Corporatocracy, Fascist America, Republicans, Including Wingers & "Moderates", We the People. Tags: .