Obama's manufactured airport delays

Conn Carroll:

When President Obama signed the fiscal cliff deal in January, he hoped that the threat of automatic sequestration spending cuts would force Republicans to raise taxes. But now that sequestration has started and the federal government is functioning just fine at sequestration funding levels, Obama is looking to increase the spending pain.

Enter the Federal Aviation Administration and the furloughing of on-duty air traffic controllers. After high winds and heavy traffic caused some minor East Coast airport delays Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., rushed to the Senate floor to score political points.

“In airports across the country, millions of Americans will get their first taste of the pain of sequestration,” Reid said yesterday. “But many Americans have been feeling that pain for weeks. We cannot and we should not only address the FAA cuts. We cannot ignore the sequester’s overall effect on Americans.”

Problem, not only does the FAA have enough money to pay all their scheduled on-duty air traffic controllers, even after the sequester they actually have more money then they requested for 2013.

Here are the facts: President Obama’s 2013 FAA Budget Request asked for just $15.172 billion. But Congress gave them an extra $1.1 billion for the Grants-in-Aid for Airports program, bringing their total 2013 funding to $16.668 billion. Then the sequester lopped off $669 million in FAA funding, leaving them with $15.999 billion.

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What we are seeing is Presidential bad faith in dealing with the budget in an attempt to force higher taxes.  He and the Democrats should be called on their bad faith attempts to raise taxes.  They should be exposed for their misleading attempts to cause more pain for American travelers.