by "HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
Published 06/06/2017 at 15:58
by "HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
Published 06/06/2017 at 15:58
Tags: politics
STARS: 2
Musings on the ATC issues. So here is how I see it:
Congress is created to be facilitators for public affairs. A large part of that job is managing income and spending that income to create and maintain services in the public interest.
The creation of air travel necessitates a organization to oversee safety of air travel enacted by and funded through congressional means.
Political squabbling, agendas and infighting incapacitates congress to be able to perform its most basic fiscal duties for decades.
Problems pile up and compound in this environment to the point where critical programs and infrastructure are left in bad places
In leu of fixing the source of the problems [politics], the solution presented is to dump the problems on someone else and claim its good governing.
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This would be like your work refusing pay you. Then blame that you aren’t working well enough because you are starving to death and you don’t have a place to live. Then fire you because you weren’t towing the line. Then hold a press conference for what a great boss they were for digging the company out of a hole.
I mean, this makes sense in a cut and run kinda way...like bankruptcy...but it begs the question:
How does congress NOT end up looking like complete failures when they follow through on plans like this? In what way can they spin this to NOT have their failures laid bare? If you were part of this failure, would you not want to do what you can to avoid such a glaring admission? Lastly, and preempting the others, do they not care how much worse they look at this point because it just can’t hurt?
Im leaving aside the desperate needs of the ATC program or any number of government programs that have been left to wither at the neglect of congress. Im asking how the public can see this privatization model as anything but a complete acknowledgement of total failure of congress to perform its intended function?
Sure there are programs that are inefficient or wasteful and probably could use to be privatized (USPS) but the main problems with the ATC program is lack of funding to carry out its mission caused by politicians using the necessity of these services as leverage and bargaining chips to further personal or party agendas.
I know this is news to no one, but does it make anyone sick to their stomachs?
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
06/06/2017 at 16:13, STARS: 2
The events of Nine-Eleven clearly demonstrated the centrality of the airspace to the essential functions of these United States. We aren’t Aeroflot , but we also don’t need to be turning the ATC over to a civilian business interest.
What the Trump administrition evisages post-apocalypse is beyond me to imagine, but he and they are out to destroy American government and society. Happily, robust government agencies are keeping doom at bay.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/06/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 5
The problem is one side of the American political spectrum believes government should do as little as possible and that for-profit companies are the best at everything, because the profit motive will encourage them to provide the best service, or else “the market” will go get that service elsewhere.
The problems with this reasoning are very simple:
For-profit companies can also increase profits through decreasing spending, regardless of how that affects service quality.
In many cases, for-profit companies, especially when some government function is sold off to them, effectively have monopolies where people have no other option.
The classic example of this is when states get sick of maintaining a highway and sell it off to a private company who promptly rebuilds the whole road to make people all happy with the nice new pavement and open-road tolling where they don’t have to stop at toll booths anymore. This all this happens way faster than when the state ran the road, but then the private company comes and jacks up toll prices with the justification of all that money they just spent to make the road nicer, even though they’re obviously recouping vastly more than their initial spend.
Usually the “private companies are the best at everything” folks only privatize things at the state level. At the federal level they do whatever they can to say “nope, this isn’t a federal thing, it’s up to the states” because they know at least in the red states, the states will do a fine job of dismantling that government service or program in the name of reducing spending.
So really this is more of the same without the middleman of red state governments.
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
06/06/2017 at 16:18, STARS: 1
You make a lot of great points here - but you’re using too much logic, unfortunately. /s.
Congress will sell this as “making government smaller”, which is kinda BS, given the structure that they’re proposing.
The lack of investment in systems upgrades (the OVERWHELMING issue with our ATC system, IMHO) is directly attributable to Congress’ failings over the last several decades. ATC needs a capital infusion - and I don’t see where privatization will make that easier.
But never underestimate Congress’ desire and ability to kick a can down the road or into someone else’s yard - Social Security is an even better example of that, really. Our Federal Government is failing us, and it’s not a red/blue issue.
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/06/2017 at 16:20, STARS: 3
Im floating 3 theories, from most to least optimistic, on why this is:
1. Simple party politics trying to reduce government oversight
2. Simple smoke and mirrors to distract people from other problems (covfefe)
3. Trump, for whatever unknown reason, is actively trying to get fired/do a bad job.
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1. This one feels like the reason congress is along for the ride
2. This one feels like the most popular opinion
3. This one scares me most.
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/06/2017 at 16:23, STARS: 1
Our government is failing us, I think the penny is starting to drop on that one.
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
06/06/2017 at 16:25, STARS: 1
I tend to think it’s #1, with a dash of #2 added.
I think, however, that ALL of the thought that goes into it just stops at the end of the bullet you wrote - government bad, shrink it.
There are a lot of variants of #3 that keep me up at night - but I tend to think that the simplest explanation (gross incompetence) is the most likely.
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
06/06/2017 at 16:27, STARS: 1
What I can’t wrap my head around is - what are the long term implications of that? I have a 9 month old son - what kind of country/world will he grow up in?
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/06/2017 at 16:30, STARS: 1
I’ve got a 4 and 6 year old...I know your pain. They’ve been warning us for 30 years about kicking the issues down the road, future generations, etc. Well...way to screw us over political ambitions!
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
06/06/2017 at 16:39, STARS: 0
I keep hoping for that big ‘aha’ moment where the country bands together to solve the problem. We’ve certainly done it before - but it’s hard to envision that right now. Best case seems to be that the current leadership screws it up pretty bad, then is replaced by the leadership we need.
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
06/06/2017 at 16:46, STARS: 3
This is a productive line of thinking.
I’m a Democrat, but I subscribe to a conservative religion. Many folks that I respect who are politically to my right, are relatively unconcerned by Trump’s antics, having faith, ironically, in the government agencies that I see Trump as trying to destroy. As a result, I have chosen to ignore much of what Trump does — and tweets — as pure poke-Liberals-in-the-eye rhetoric. And the rhetoric is very effective at driving Liberals to distraction. Some of the rhetoric will turn out to be self destructive, and some of it could be downright dangerous for national defense, to wit: taking sides against Qatar today, who play host to much American military might. 8,000 U.S. military personnel, I think I read today.
Anyhow, to your point(s): if the discussion were mere politics, I’d be okay with having an administration with different views than my own. But I think Trump is deranged and dangerous and scared to death that he’s in over his head.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
06/06/2017 at 16:55, STARS: 0
You don’t elect congressmen to legislate. You elect congressmen to create lit tweets that you can share and write thinkpieces about.
"Xyl0c41n3" (i-am-xyl0c41n3)
06/06/2017 at 17:12, STARS: 2
Im asking how the public can see this privatization model as anything but a complete acknowledgement of total failure of congress...
We (the public) largely DO see this as a huge failure of Congress.
But you also have to understand that it’s not a failure of the ENTIRE Congress. It’s due, in very large part, to the obstructionist tactics of a single party which have stymied progress since 2010.
Sure, there’s always been a tendency for House Representatives and Senators to vote along party lines, to filibuster, to bicker, to debate and to stonewall, but the partisanship really started getting out of control and unproductive when Republicans took over the House two years after Obama became president. (Remember the government shut down of 2013? That was a Republican-led effort to stop the Affordable Care Act — aka: Obamacare — from happening).
And now that both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans the partisanship has festered to a new all-time low, to the detriment of pretty much all Americans, whether they voted for Trump or Hillary, and whether they work in the public or private sector.
Now, there isn’t even the barest semblance of trying to reach across the aisle for the sake of what’s good for the country. To whit:
The Trump administration has ordered agencies to NOT respond to oversight requests from Democratic members of Congress . They’re, of course, using the thin veil of an excuse that they’re just not responding to requests from people who are not chairs of congressional committees, but since Congress is controlled by Republicans, it means all committees are chaired by Republicans.
From the linked article:
A senior Democratic aide said that of the Senate Democrats’ 225 oversight letters sent to the Trump administration since January asking for information, the vast majority have received no response.
Even some Republicans are surprised by this level of cross-party exclusion. Also from the linked article:
Republicans said that President Barack Obama’s administration was not always quick to respond to them and sometimes ignored them. However, the Obama White House never ordered agencies to stop cooperating with Republican oversight requests altogether, making the marching orders from Trump’s aides that much more unusual.
But, as of right now, Trump and his marching orders have the support of Congress’ strongest GOP leaders, including Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and others. These men have a history of not budging at all when it comes to making necessary compromises in the course of legislating. And they all have histories of going against what their own constituents want, and even going against what more moderate members of their own party want.
We have midterm elections, and staggered elections (for senators, at least), and two houses and all that to try to ensure the idea of “majority rule with minority rights.” But when one side of the equation, be they the minority or the majority, is adamant that they will not cooperate or compromise in any shape or form unless things go exactly their way, then there’s no hope of actually maintaining majority rule with minority rights.
Finally, you asked:
I know this is news to no one, but does it make anyone sick to their stomachs?
The answer, of course, is yes. Very much so.
"Manwich - now Keto-Friendly" (manwich)
06/06/2017 at 17:15, STARS: 0
I don’t see what Automatic Train Control has to do with politics or air travel...
/jk
"Xyl0c41n3" (i-am-xyl0c41n3)
06/06/2017 at 17:16, STARS: 1
Ever thought it could also be a little from column A, a little from column B and a little from column C?
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/06/2017 at 17:23, STARS: 2
I disagree with nothing you’ve said, only that I think the problem is more endemic than the last 5 or 10 years. Its been a long road to get here.
The thing that really steams me? The republicans have their shot right now and are, more or less, unopposed in their agenda and yet they still accomplish nothing. The floor is yours republicans, you can fix the problems you whined about. show us you can do SOMETHING productive.
"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
06/06/2017 at 17:24, STARS: 1
Thats not out of the question.
"Xyl0c41n3" (i-am-xyl0c41n3)
06/06/2017 at 17:29, STARS: 2
Yup. It’s maddening that they quite literally have control of both halves of the legislature and the executive branch and they still can’t get fuck all done.
And you’re right, the partisanship issues do begin well before the last president, but man, I remember being a kid and watching the news (because I’m a nerd like that) and seeing people work across the aisle to get things done. Not all the time, and not on every issue, but on enough to consistently pass legislation most of the time.
Sigh.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
06/06/2017 at 22:49, STARS: 0
Dan carlin had a great episode on the “imperial presidency” on how presidents have been consolodating power for the last 100 years, and congress gleefully handing it over wiping thier hands clean.
Regarding the atc #1 should be safety. #2 safety. #6 or #7 cost cutting.
louis c K “you’re in a tube going 500 miles an hour.”
regarding the post office. my friends dad is a manager at their regional office and he always rants “people (and congress) always ask us what to review to cut costs. we know damn well what we could do. the issue is no-one ever wants an office to close in THEIR district. every 5 years we get asked, we tell them almost the same thing ” in a many areas the post office turns a profit, but rural areas suck that away. first having trucks make twice daily runs, eats up driver and truck times
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47126893
privatization would close those offices down in a heartbeat, which becomes a cluster as those of the few government offices in many remote areas.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
06/06/2017 at 23:02, STARS: 0
Option 3: part B: he never thought he’d win, nor the GOP.
See half-assed march healthcare rollout.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
06/07/2017 at 00:07, STARS: 0
what is interesting is their biggest issue is how far to go. Scary and interesting at the same time.
