Well, this can get real philosophical... so let's begin.
The United States of America is not a government with a people. We are a people with a government. This means our government agencies belong to us, and are our responsibility. The FAA and it's regulations, are the regulations as the people have deemed them. It then becomes our responsibility to know what our government organization that is speaking on our behalf is recommending as safety standards.
The information is public record. As are the violations of every airline. If we as a consumer are ill informed (and I am), then we have no one to blame but ourselves, as we failed to know what our own organizations that are working on our behalf are doing.
I am a realist as well, so I know not every passenger knows what's going on, just like I know everyone who signs a mortgage did not read and understand everything they signed. But that does not make it less our fault.
So you actually think the general public is responsible for the actions of the individual deep specialists hired to be the experts in all the specialties the largest corporation in the country works on?
Make no doubt, government in all its forms makes up the largest business entity in the land, which we ARE responsible for creating, as well as letting its budget get completely out of control. I agree with you there.
But if I hire GE to build a locomotive, it doesn't matter how hard I want to police their work, without hiring another locomotive expert to check it, I'll never know where they cut corners.
Same thing with government. But we don't have two. So we say, "Okay, let's make sure government has built in checks and balances."
Now if you're saying that we've done a very bad job putting checks and balances into various government agencies, that I can certainly agree with.
In fact, most of the time the non-partisan GAO agrees also.
But, realistically, when did you last get a say in it?
A modern example is DHS. It is a direct result of 9/11.
Here's some info on that lovely 22 agency mash-up. If KPMG can't get a handle on it, what makes you think an individual Citizen can?
(From Wikipedia...)
"Audit of expenditures
The DHS independent auditor is KPMG, one of the Big Four audit firms.[16] Due to the level of material weaknesses identified, KPMG were unable to audit the DHS financial statements for FY 2010.[16] KPMG were unable to express an audit opinion on the FY 2009,[17] FY 2008,[18] FY 2007,[19] FY 2005,[20] and FY 2003[21] financial statements. Attempts to access the reports for FY 2006 and FY 2004 within the 'information for citizens' portal met with a 404 error.[22] The Message from the DHS Chief Financial Officer in the FY 2010 report states 'This Annual Financial Report (AFR) is our principal financial statement of accountability to the President, Congress and the American public. The AFR gives a comprehensive view of the Department’s financial activities and demonstrates the Department’s stewardship of taxpayer dollars.'[23] The Message from the DHS Chief Financial Officer concludes 'I am extremely proud of the Department’s accomplishments ... we will continue to build upon our successes.'[23] The Secretary of Homeland Security endorsed this message saying that the DHS is 'continuing to be responsible stewards of taxpayer resources. The scope of our mission is broad, challenging, and vital to the security of the Nation ... Thank you for your partnership and collaboration. Yours very truly, Janet Napolitano.'[24]"
My contention is that DHS was created for exactly that purpose. To completely obfuscate and bury auditors do deep, no one would ever be able to unscramble it. With no successful audits in almost a decade, how can anyone be responsible to say anything other than "disband it into manageable chunks again"? And that isn't going to happen.
I believe the government outgrew our ability to manage it effectively long before I was born. It may have just barely been under control in my grandfather's youth, because the general culture at the time was self-based. You took care of your own problems because there was no government big enough to help.
And you looked to your local community and not a national media for your discussion topics of the day, which led to much more focus on real local problems than made up national crises.
More local brain-time spent on local things, if you will.
People were more committed to neighbors than national politics diluted down into vague ideological platforms.
So back to your point, when did you have a say in the creation or the methodology of the checks and balances to control DHS? I can stipulate that maybe older stodgy agencies might be all messed up, but this new one was an opportunity to do it right.
Did we? Did we have a choice?
At the opening of the 107th Congress the Senate was split 50/50. With the incoming President, the Senate majority went to Republicans by the tie-breaking vote of the VP. In June, Jim Jeffords announced he was switching Parties to Independent from Republican and would join the Democratic Caucus, swinging the Senate one vote the other way.
If you believe the Two Party system and that theyre always at odds so that there is a check and balance there, it would theoretically be impossible to get a better setup for a reasonable discussion of the wisdom or details of the creation of the largest single government agency in the history of the Republic than that.
Dead tied.
48 Republicans, 41 Democrats, and one Independent voted in favor of creation. 90% of the Senate.
8 Democrats, 1 Independent voted against.
Frank Murkowski of Alaska did not vote.
So I contend, that you and I have zero control over these people whatsoever. If I counted my friends in 2002, I'm certain there would not have been 90% in favor of the creation of DHS. Not by a long shot.
But you see, someone mailed some Anthrax spores to a Senator. They voted out of fear for their own hides, not the will of The People.
These same people made the FAA run on continuing resolutions for budget for a decade. No one I ever talked to throughout that time felt that was appropriate. Did you? Did they listen to you?
Never once did the Congress or Senate even care until very recently.
If everyone you run into says something isn't right, and the elected officials of the Republic are doing it anyway... How is it even possible to make the argument that the people are responsible or even have any say in these matters anymore?
Your letter is filed in File 13 and the politicians vote whichever way they want.
I have no intent for this post to be partisan political commentary. It's meant as facts to question your premise that "We The People" have any control over our government whatsoever at this point in time.
I have to use political party names to show the closeness of the Senate in the above example, but they could just as easily be labeled Party A and Party B.
If you think the average Jane or Joe has time to watch over FAA experts hired to do a job, it ain't happening. We can't even get the Senate to listen to us.
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