The “sequester” hits JFK Airport Update

Yesterday, the federal government began cutting the work hours of Air Traffic Controllers allegedly because of the sequester.  The controllers will now be required to take one unpaid day off every 15 days.  Today we learned of up to two hour delays at JFK due to the sequester.  Forgetting for the moment that the sequester was the President’s idea, I’d like you to think about a few things.

As best I can tell, Senator Harry Reid’s beloved Cowboy Poetry Festival is still slated as scheduled.  Yes, it “only” costs taxpayers $50,000 a year, but, why are we spending your money on this event in the first place?

The President has argued repeatedly that he can do nothing to alter how the sequestration is implemented, because, you see, the sequester is an act of Congress, and thus he is powerless to intervene.

To that extent it is refreshing to learn that the President believes he cannot unilaterally overturn an act of Congress with which he does not agree.

And yet, in recent months, the President, by Executive Order, has decided to allow children of illegal immigrants to obtain work permits in this country.  This order violates federal laws duly passed by Congress.

The President also, by Executive Order, has altered the work requirements contained in our welfare laws.  Those laws, too, were duly passed by Congress.

If the President does not like the effects of the sequester, is there some reason why he can’t use an Executive Order to make it less painful to the American public by, let’s say cancelling funding for the Cowboy Poetry Festival, or the thousands of other programs that should not be funded with your dollars?

Am I missing something, or is it the President’s design to make life as difficult as possible for the American public?

Update:

Should you need anymore proof,

On Monday, as flight delays were hitting travelers at airports around the country due to these allegedly unavoidable cuts, the top story on the Department of Transportation’s website announced a $474 million grant program that promises to “make communities more livable and sustainable.”

 

 

SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

28 Comments

  1. just sayin on April 22, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    Bingo!



  2. ricbee on April 22, 2013 at 10:07 pm

    Don’t give baby Obama all he wants & he spits up all over you.



  3. sammy22 on April 22, 2013 at 10:41 pm

    Gee, no sympathy for non-US air travelers going through JFK airport?



    • Dimsdale on April 23, 2013 at 9:05 am

      I am curious: why are non US travelers any different, or why should they be somehow exempt??
      ?
      Or more succinctly, what is the point of your post?



    • Lynn on April 23, 2013 at 11:04 am

      Ha, Dims I was ignoring the post above, but I do want to “understand and feel good” says I sarcastically. Frankly right now I sympathize with true blue Americans and no other.



    • kateinmaine on April 24, 2013 at 9:54 pm

      i feel sorry for anyone that has to go through jfk–sequester or no.? on the plus side, they do provide prayer rugs and cordoned areas in the international terminal.? i don’t think the cuts will impact that.



  4. Lynn on April 23, 2013 at 6:34 am

    Pretty soon, the world-wide travelers here who revel in going to 3rd world nations, can save themselves the travel.?



  5. Murphy on April 23, 2013 at 8:48 am

    We all know Hopey loves pain as long as it doesn’t affect him. And it sure won’t delay AirForce One a tiny bit.



    • Dimsdale on April 23, 2013 at 9:09 am

      But AF1’s landing will screw up the airports even more, not to mention local traffic conditions!



    • kateinmaine on April 24, 2013 at 9:57 pm

      who’s to say that whatever problems are presently being experienced aren’t residual from af1’s busy schedule.? doesn’t it take 3 days to get back to normal air routines after storms?? perhaps these are just pent-up delays from frequent o’hops.



  6. Dimsdale on April 23, 2013 at 9:08 am

    It would make more sense to give furloughs to EPA officials, middle level sub deputy assistants, social workers, and other nonessential workers.? What ever happened to the non essential worker anyway, or is it the contention of ?bama that the aforementioned are more important than Air Traffic controllers?? Surely, the people I listed far outnumber the ATCs, and would save far more money, and keep them out of mischief…



    • sammy22 on April 23, 2013 at 12:36 pm

      Good idea, keep shifting the “pain” so nobody can have it.



    • Dimsdale on April 24, 2013 at 10:30 am

      Cutting the REAL fat is not pain, except for hangers-on parasites.? Would you rather furlough someone in a non critical job that will only take a temporary pay cut as I recommend, or furlough someone whose absence will negatively affect thousands of others for other gain than that, and screw the economy to boot, as ?bama supports?
      ?
      If you can’t see that ?bama is making (or letting) this happen to screw the Republicans that didn’t cave to his threats, then you need to reexamine the history of this issue.



    • kateinmaine on April 24, 2013 at 10:00 pm

      near as i can tell, the federal gov’t was not formed to mete out pain.? if that is now it’s main function, the time has come to heed the instruction to dissolve and start over.



  7. Dimsdale on April 23, 2013 at 9:10 am

    I hope that Cruz or someone guts Harry Reid’s Brokeback Poetry festival too!



  8. stinkfoot on April 23, 2013 at 10:51 am

    The purpose of the “sequester” cuts is to create pain for the American citizen as punishment for not demanding that their congress-thug support spending the country into bankruptcy.



    • Lynn on April 23, 2013 at 11:06 am

      It was foretold in 1990 New Party introduction of Obama into politics
      ?



  9. Murphy on April 23, 2013 at 12:26 pm

    Blumie? staff members salary totals for Fiscal Year: 2012 $2,471,447.? Let’s start cutting there…. not sure how many are in charge of television makeup.?



    • Dimsdale on April 24, 2013 at 10:31 am

      Are you seriously expecting Blumie to actually read the bills by himself before he votes on them?? Are you mad??????? /sarcasm



  10. Tim-in-Alabama on April 23, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    Obama hopes for a crash so he can give a shout out at the funerals and call for more money.



    • Dimsdale on April 24, 2013 at 10:30 am

      Do they allow teleprompters at funerals?? 😉



    • stinkfoot on April 24, 2013 at 12:05 pm

      Only dead ones.



  11. JollyRoger on April 24, 2013 at 6:10 pm

    During the Bush era, they used to complain that the president was supposed to be a uniter- not a divider! ? Why is the media not making hay out of his campaign promises to “go thru the budget line by line, number by number” eliminate earmarks??? ?Oblahblah is playing a dangerous game and I’ll bet he’d love to blame the opposition for any tragedies that might result from this.



    • kateinmaine on April 24, 2013 at 10:02 pm

      don’t ‘earmarks’ fall under prohibited speech and criticism of o?? may also be racist, too–these things change so quickly. . .



  12. yeah on April 25, 2013 at 9:22 am

    Isnt it lovely how a baseline cut to future spending all of a sudden manifested right here in the present?
    Congress drags its feet on everything, until they up and decide to make something happen right away.
    Our government is a complete joke.



    • stinkfoot on April 26, 2013 at 1:19 pm

      Yep- I’m sure if I were carrying $100,000.00 in unserviceable personal debt and was planning on borrowing more to purchase a loaded Mercedes but decided to forgo a $600.00 rear spoiler kit in the interest of frugality my creditors would be duly impressed.



    • Lynn on April 27, 2013 at 7:42 am

      Awesome illustration.



  13. sammy22 on April 26, 2013 at 11:04 am

    Problem solved: Senators and Representatives were inconvenienced.



square-obama-press

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.