Traffic Controllers Furloughs

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early April?
OMG!!
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will have to begin furloughing air traffic controllers in early April because of a looming $627 million in automatic spending cuts, the head of the agency said on Wednesday, while Republican lawmakers argued there were other ways to handle the budget crunch.
 
85 billion, the total amount of budget authority cut by sequestration, is an approximately 2% cut. Two freaking percent. And the house, senate, and POTUS all signed this into law knowing exactly what it would involve. They're a bunch of crybaby do-nothings if they can't cut a lousy 2% without the sky falling. All these threats are just to keep the public worked up. Also, it's only about 40 billion of actual outlays that are being cut. Less than 1%.
 
cheap weenie said:
85 billion, the total amount of budget authority cut by sequestration, is an approximately 2% cut. Two freaking percent. And the house, senate, and POTUS all signed this into law knowing exactly what it would involve. They're a bunch of crybaby do-nothings if they can't cut a lousy 2% without the sky falling. All these threats are just to keep the public worked up. Also, it's only about 40 billion of actual outlays that are being cut. Less than 1%.
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:yes::yes::yes::mad2:
 
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Actually, it isn't a 2 percent cut because they left out the entitlements; so it works out to be a 5 percent on general stuff to 8 percent on military spending.

Still, take 13 months to spend the money instead of 12 months and its an 8 percent saving.
 
The problem is the way sequestration is applied, it removes the indivivdual agency discretion to can things they can do without to keep services like controllers on budget. Further unlike the donothing boneheads in congress who have no repurcussions other than a possible failure to get reelected in 2-6 years, a federal employee in a budget or managerial status can go to JAIL under the antideficiency act for exceeding budget authorization no matter HOW great the ideals involved.
 
That chart is terrible because it fails to account for population or inflation.. it's also wrong :)
 
supernovae said:
That chart is terrible because it fails to account for population or inflation.. it's also wrong :)
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The title reads "Inflation-Adjusted Dollars" :confused::confused:

Scratches head and wonders why folks think it's not adjusted.
 
Whatever the actual % it is chump change and fear mongering. Actually it is closer to extortion then fear mongering.
 

What is the source of the chart, please?
 
wsuffa said:
The title reads "Inflation-Adjusted Dollars" :confused::confused:

Scratches head and wonders why folks think it's not adjusted.
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Its not adjusted per capita / per person... I don't have the data in front of me, but going on memory in 1962 the budget was 4k adjusted per person and its what, 8k now or something like that?

I'm not sure what this chart is adjusted to other than a big cherry picked number :)

still not a comfortable nor sustainable number, but adjusted for inflation and all things said, we've been here before and gotten out, we just need to get our heads out of our butts and work on a solution instead of cherry picking stats

adjusted for inflation if the spending was 4k in 1962 it should be near 30k today, which it isn't..
 
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I knew the "Huge Manatee" would come out! Awesome, I giggle everytime.
 
I thought political discussions were not permitted in the regular forums. Why is right-wing cant allowed?
 
Tommy3 said:
I thought political discussions were not permitted in the regular forums. Why is right-wing cant allowed?
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This is right wing cant? All the data about how minuscule the cuts are seems to be nonpartisan.

Sent via teletype
 
cheap weenie said:
Feel free to enlighten us with your superior facts.
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I think this will be the fourth time. The spending cuts are not throughout the Federal Government. If they were it truly wouldn't be any big whip. They are only taking place in the discretionary program, entitlements like social security and medicare are spared.

Add to this the fiscal year is half over, therefore the entire year's cuts have to be taken in the remainder. Add to that the commitments, like subsidies and payments to contractors, have already been mostly made. Moreover, the cuts are mandated to occur evenly across units, leaving no flexibility to those affected.The only thing they're paying now are salaries, so that's what gets cut. Next year shouldn't be as bad, since they can target non-salary payments to cut where possible.

We'll see lots of closed towers and I bet some crashes as a result. The food supply is going to go bonkers without inspectors, you can expect shortages and increased prices. Of course, if you thought airline delays were bad before...

Democracy results in people getting what they deserve. And with the rampant ignorance I'm seeing, the American people deserve this.
 
Tommy3 said:
I thought political discussions were not permitted in the regular forums. Why is right-wing cant allowed?
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"Not permitted" isn't quite accurate - the rules are written a bit more loosely re enforcement (e.g "...Pilots of America shall have the right, but not the obligation....") You could insert a left-wing view and, so long as the dialog remains reasonably civil I suspect the moderators wouldn't move or close the thread. At least, that is my best guess based on my observation of past threads that seemed equally political.
 
steingar said:
I think this will be the fourth time. The spending cuts are not throughout the Federal Government. If they were it truly wouldn't be any big whip. They are only taking place in the discretionary program, entitlements like social security and medicare are spared.

Add to this the fiscal year is half over, therefore the entire year's cuts have to be taken in the remainder. Add to that the commitments, like subsidies and payments to contractors, have already been mostly made. Moreover, the cuts are mandated to occur evenly across units, leaving no flexibility to those affected.The only thing they're paying now are salaries, so that's what gets cut. Next year shouldn't be as bad, since they can target non-salary payments to cut where possible.

We'll see lots of closed towers and I bet some crashes as a result. The food supply is going to go bonkers without inspectors, you can expect shortages and increased prices. Of course, if you thought airline delays were bad before...

Democracy results in people getting what they deserve. And with the rampant ignorance I'm seeing, the American people deserve this.
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Don't forget that the House, Senate, and Mr Obama all agreed on the sequestration back when they all chose to sign it into law.

I don't think anyone is saying that the cuts will be unnoticeable. But it's still just not that much of a cut. Even if you use the worst-case math and say it's an 8% cut, that's not that much. And like you said, we've only got half a year to suffer through before we can spread it out over full years. It's hard to see this being anything more than a slight inconvenience.
 
Take the political stuff to Spin ZOne.

This thread has now drifted away from ATC furloughs to outright budget/political stuff.
 
wsuffa said:
Take the political stuff to Spin ZOne.

This thread has now drifted away from ATC furloughs to outright budget/political stuff.
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What drift? The furloughs are driven by politics.
 
I have to agree with Mr. Steingar here.:yikes:
Especially this part:

steingar said:
Democracy results in people getting what they deserve. And with the rampant ignorance I'm seeing, the American people deserve this.
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$85Billion is spit in the ocean compared to the Federal Budget (assuming we actually had a budget).

But the politicians purposely defined the cuts to go to programs that would generate the most fear, outrage and pain because they were playing chicken and assumed the other side would flinch.

The problem is that the Democrats believe the got this HUGE mandate and don't have t flinch. And the Republicans feel like the got swindled last time because they gave in to the tax increases but never got the cuts they were promised. They don't want to make the same mistake twice.

And my guess is that the next election will see similar results this one.

steingar said:
I think this will be the fourth time. The spending cuts are not throughout the Federal Government. If they were it truly wouldn't be any big whip. They are only taking place in the discretionary program, entitlements like social security and medicare are spared.

Add to this the fiscal year is half over, therefore the entire year's cuts have to be taken in the remainder. Add to that the commitments, like subsidies and payments to contractors, have already been mostly made. Moreover, the cuts are mandated to occur evenly across units, leaving no flexibility to those affected.The only thing they're paying now are salaries, so that's what gets cut. Next year shouldn't be as bad, since they can target non-salary payments to cut where possible.

We'll see lots of closed towers and I bet some crashes as a result. The food supply is going to go bonkers without inspectors, you can expect shortages and increased prices. Of course, if you thought airline delays were bad before...
Click to expand...
 
wsuffa said:
Take the political stuff to Spin ZOne.

This thread has now drifted away from ATC furloughs to outright budget/political stuff.
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You may accuse me of not comprehending plain English, or perhaps you'll grudgingly concede you don't always follow the rules you threaten to enforce, but it seems you have not exactly been above posting political stuff outside the Spin Zone; e.g.:
http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1103042#post1103042

The rules don't require you to shut or move threads, so why not wait till the metaphorical fire starts? Even then, seems to me the only thing that gets burned when they do is some adult egos....

I don't think anyone's eyes are forced (as in "A Clockwork Orange") to read these threads, so the offended would seem to have a lot of nothing to stand upon.
 
“On the non-defense side, the overall spending level this year is 12 percent higher than when Barack Obama came into office four years ago, so even after the cuts, these agencies will be spending more than they did then, even on an inflation-adjusted basis,” said Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif.
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That says a lot about what's really happening here.
 
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Jim Logajan said:
The following chart comes from this site:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/341926/sequestration-devastation-two-charts-deroy-murdock
And as can be seen claims the source of the data is from somewhere on this page:
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43539
Pic_corner_022813_heritageline.jpg
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Most of that big blue stuff is military and medicare spending, but we are not allowed to touch that for some reason.

Basically what the sequester is doing is while we're in huge debt we've sacrificed having a latte in the morning while continuing to buy a new BMW every year.
 
cheap weenie said:
No different than a private company laying off unnecessary employees. When it comes down to laying off or going bankrupt, a wise business lays off. Then they can hire back after getting financially stable again, versus that job being gone forever after going out of business.
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I was just highlighting that he said the military isnt being touched.
 
Seanaldinho said:
I was just highlighting that he said the military isnt being touched.
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Ah, I see. Technically he is right, however; the person in the article is a civilian. Military pay truly is not being touched.
 
WarriorPilot said:
early April?
OMG!!
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will have to begin furloughing air traffic controllers in early April because of a looming $627 million in automatic spending cuts, the head of the agency said on Wednesday, while Republican lawmakers argued there were other ways to handle the budget crunch.
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It seems to me that lawmakers have the power to specify how the budget crunch will be handled, and have declined to do so.
 
Palmpilot said:
It seems to me that lawmakers have the power to specify how the budget crunch will be handled, and have declined to do so.
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Seems to me this is and has been the persistent problem for a Very Long Time.
 
SCCutler said:
Seems to me this is and has been the persistent problem for a Very Long Time.
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Yup. I really wish there was a viable third party. I'm disgusted with both the R's and D's over their performance for the past few years. Neither party deserves to stay in power after how poorly they've done, unfortunately our system is set up so that those are usually are only viable choices.
 
SCCutler said:
Seems to me this is and has been the persistent problem for a Very Long Time.
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And it's going to continue. Last Thursday the Senate defeated a House plan for replacing $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts called for by sequestration with a plan that would have given President Obama two weeks to come up with targeted spending cuts.
 
cowman said:
Yup. I really wish there was a viable third party. I'm disgusted with both the R's and D's over their performance for the past few years. Neither party deserves to stay in power after how poorly they've done, unfortunately the R's and D's have set the system up so that those are the only choices.
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There, FTFY. :mad2:
 
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