The Idiocy of Rand Paul
I’m no fan of the TSA, but Rand Paul’s most recent legislation is beyond stupid. Paul, after being stopped by the TSA which forced him to miss a flight, is pissed and he’s introduced legislation to privatize the TSA, which by the way was the way it was prior to Sept. 11, 2011. Yes, the TSA should improve, but there are far better ways to do this than attacking the TSA with a hatchet.
Tags: TSA
Actually, there are a number of airports in California where the TSA has been privatized (SFO, OAK, San Jose).
TSA is one of my least favorite agencies. We all know that hijacking a plane lost all of its effectiveness as a pseudo-missle three-quarters of the way through the September 11th attacks.
On September 10th, hijacking meant that you would probably sit in a puddle of your own juices for a few days in Cuba. After three planes were flown into buildings, the forth was knocked out of the sky by the victims on board the plane. I’m not sure why we spend 100’s of billions of dollars on protecting us from a no-longer-effective attack.
I’d rather spend that money preparing for the next attack, like nuclear security or biological research. Or fixing bridges for that matter, before the gravity terrorists take one out.
Or fixing bridges for that matter, before the gravity terrorists take one out.
or, the austerity terrorists – Austerrorists! We need a War on Austerrorism.
The Global War on Austerrorism!
And it has the added advantage of sounding like “Austrian Terrorism” which is closely related…
In fact, I think we could call the Austrian School an Austrian Madrassa.
Privatizing the GSA is another way of sending taxpayer money to the people who fund campaigns. Privatizing the TSA has so far cost the taxpayers 3-9% more than than if the government runs it.
Not only will it immediately cost more, but the privatizers will work to reduce the wages and benefits of the screeners AND keep the savings. Taxpayers won’t see one iota of greater efficiency or any cost savings. A scam, in other words.
@c “Privatizing the GSA is another way of sending taxpayer money to the people who fund campaigns.”
This was the entire objective behind the Bush administration policy reducing the number of government employees and forcing the agencies to hire contractors who work for big Republican owned companies in DC area (Beltway Bandits). If was a huge give away at the taxpayers expense, in many cases doubling the costs of some programs. Agencies were specifically prevented from hiring contractors directly, forcing an expensive middleman into the equation.
… and then Bush had the nerve to claim that he reduced the size of the government!!!
Clinton and Gore did this too — while they did do some downsizing, they were also fans of privatizing to claim that they achieved a smaller government. What the smaller government fetishists fail to realize is that outsourcing government work to the private sector always costs them more money. Always. And the insistence that government get smaller leaves fewer and fewer people to oversee the private sector now doing this work. So the costs increase and no one is paying attention. It is the way the game is set up to be played, but it is amazing that the small government fetishists don’t see how badly they are being hoodwinked.
elaborate please. there’s always a better way theoretically at least. what’s up? turn us on.