Department Of Transportation Adds To Fear Mongering Campaign

A trio of Republicans accused the Obama Administration of “creating alarm” in a quest to ramp up political pressure to deal with the sequester and suggested late Friday there were other areas of “fat” that could be cut by the FAA. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Reps. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said the dire warnings were not backed up by financial data and suggested the FAA could instead cut the $500 million it spends each year on consultants or the $200 million it spends on supplies and travel. Image Credit: The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Hong Kong

Department Of Transportation Adds To Fear Mongering Campaign

The Obama Administration's bureaucratic fear mongering campaign starts (after President Barack Obama's presentation) with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood:

The Obama administration is heightening its warnings about looming budget cuts by emphasizing an area the traveling public already dreads - gridlock in the skies.

The White House trotted out former Republican, Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood on Friday to warn that sequestration would bring “calamity” to air travel by forcing the FAA to close dozens of control towers and eliminate overnight shifts at others, in turn prompting airlines to cancel or delay flights. Delays would be as much as 90 minutes, he said.

The FAA soon backed up his words with the release of further details about where towers could close ... from Opa-Locka, Fla., to Snohomish County, Wash.

It was further reported the cuts would also slow airport maintenance because of the thousands of furlough days that would hit the Transportation Department’s workforce of 55,000, thousands of whom are responsible for keeping the skies safe, the former Illinois congressman told reporters.

The fact of the matter is that there are NO CUTS to the amount of funding that this, and other functions of the federal government had in 2012 at $3,700 Billion dollars - the budgets will actually increase $15 Billion dollars (as opposed to about $100 Billion dollars that the "baseline budgeting" would be calling for).

What? Ray LaHood can not find any desk jockeys or paper-pushers in Washington D.C. to layoff?

Riiiiight!

We understand the fear mongering game - we just do not know which appointed Bureaucratic Secretary is next to launch its fear mongering litany of horror.

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