My, this certainly has been the administration's week for flip flops, hasn't it? First the Pentagon pulls the plug on Admiral Poindexter's little terrorism off track betting parlor, and now this:
U.S. Says It Will Not Cut Air Marshals
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which just warned the airline industry of possible new al Qaeda hijackings, on Wednesday denied reports it was cutting back on the number of air marshals deployed on flights.
Threatening to pull air marshals off of long-distance flights -- reputedly to save on hotel costs -- might seem like another display of awesome incompetence on the part of our new bureaucratic Big Brother, which so far has excelled only at locating missing members of the Texas legislature.
But in this case, I think what we're looking at is a particularly effective example of an old trick, affectionately known as the "closing the Washington Monument" manuever.
The manuever is as old as time -- or at least, as old as the federal government. But the name stems from an incident in the mid-1980s, a time when both Congress and the Reagan Administration were earnestly trying to pretend that an enormous budget deficit could be closed without raising taxes. The result was something called the Gramm-Rudman Act, which required sharp cuts in so-called discretionary spending -- that part of the federal budget that isn't consumed by the big entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.
So the bean counters at the Office of Management and Budget sent to the word out to the bureaucratic hinterland: Cut your budget by X%. (I can't remember what the X was, but it was trivial relative to the size of the budget deficit -- although not at all trivial relative to the size of the agencies that had to come up with the cuts.)
The National Park Service, no stranger to this game, supposedly came back with a budget proposal that would have made deep cuts in what the service calls the National Capital Area -- the various monuments and other public spaces in and around Washington D.C. that are under its care. This, among other things, would have required a sharp reduction in visiting hours at the Washington Monument.
Of course, reports of this outrage appeared in the press, leading to much angry talk about priorities and sacred national symbols and what not. And pretty soon, Congress and the adminstration had found some more money for the National Park Service.
As I recall, the Library of Congress then got into the act, and threatened to close its main reading room -- which, if you happened to work on Capitol Hill, was a wonderful place to escape from your boss for a while. Pretty soon, the Library's budget was restored as well. Other agencies also got the message, and before long the Gramm-Rudman Act had gone the way of the War on Poverty, Project Energy Independence, Whip Inflation Now, and a lot of other well-intentioned federal programs that did virtually nothing to solve the problems they were meant to solve.
They say old dogs can't learn new tricks, but why should they bother when the old ones still work so well?
The Transportation Security Administration asked Congress last Friday for permission to cut $104 million, or about 20 percent, of the funding for the air marshals program to help offset the agency's $900 million budget deficit.The next day, Homeland Security, the TSA's parent agency, sent an advisory to airlines and law enforcement agencies warning that al-Qaida may try more suicide hijackings.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and other lawmakers also were upset by reports that air marshals had received a directive saying they would no longer be allowed to fly missions requiring overnight stays to save money on hotel bills. Such a move would reduce the number of cross-country and international flights with marshals on board.
A Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no directive was sent by the agency. It was not clear whether the idea has been abandoned.
An interesting coincidence, no?
Now lest I start sounding like a typical right-wing crank ranting about government waste, fraud and abuse, I should add that in this case I think the "closing the Washington Monument" trick was a great idea.
I'm going on vacation in a couple of weeks, which means my entire family is going to be in the care of the airlines and the Department of Homeland Security for six or seven critical hours as we cross the great howling red state wilderness. So I wanna see Big Brother at the top of his game. I'd put the goddamned air marshals up at goddamned Club Meds if that's what it took to keep them flying -- and to hell with the budget deficit.
If the government wants to save money, let them close the Washington Monument. I'm sure the Park Service won't mind.
Not to be an overly nitpicky detail Nazi, but I think it's the Gramm-Rudman Act, as in former Texas Senator Phil Gramm.
Pedantic, tight-assed quibble:
Gramm-Rudman, as in former senator Phil Gramm (R-TX).
For completeness, the other half of the pair is former senator Warren Rudman (R-NH), who has worked tirelessly with Gary Hart on those near-futile reports about US intelligence and preparedness failures.
Clearly, Ed Zeppelin and I are of one mind.
"The pedantic, overly-nitpicky, tight-assed, detail Nazis". now there's an organization i could enjoy belonging to!
billmon,
Have a nice vacation! Don't think about so-called serious matters!
I thought it was called the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, no?
"The pedantic, overly-nitpicky, tight-assed, detail Nazis". now there's an organization i could enjoy belonging to!
Go to law school. Join the Law Review. You'd love it. :)
Yes yes yes -- Gramm, not Graham. And if the Florida Senator hadn't jumped into the presidential race, thus lodging his name in my brain, I probably would have gotten it right.
As for the Hollings part -- forget it. Gramm-Rudman is long enough. Fritz is gonna end up with an aircraft carrier named after him one of these days. He doesn't need the extra glory.
Billmon....
Wave out the window when you pass over that Red State Wasteland. I'll be waving back somewhere....
JimJ
The Clenis actually fixed up the Washington monument I believe...
But he never got a blowjob there that they could prove!
.
It's the city's top phallic symbol, isn't that enough?
Have a nice trip, Billmon. Rest assured we'll keep an extra-close eye on you.
Yes Yes Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
Cited as the reason we could not "spend" money whan I was in the Navy, for little things like...mmmmm...flight proficiency
"Skipper, 10 of us need to fly by Friday so our night quals don't expire."
"Sorry LT Fish, Gramm-Rudman-Hollings; no money for that, until (some future date)". Reaganomics at its finest.
"The Pedantic, Overly-Nitpicky, Tight-Assed, Detail Nazis" also would make a good band name.
Now appearing! The PONTAD Nazis!
I have an idea - why doesn't the US unilaterally cut out all domestic agricultural and industrial subsidies? How much would that save?
With the nitpicking and bon voyages, nobody has pointed out what a terrific post this was. As a former bureaucrat who has experience trying to juggle budgets when suddenly a fiat cuts 10% or whatever, from the budget, I understand the Washington Monument move.
What is sometimes missed by non-bureaucrats is when you do something like this you pay a real price. It violates the number one rule in climbing the career ladder in government. "Thou shalt not embarass the minister."
It is a mark of desperation. The guy who made the decision to cut air marshalls (and then quietly made sure the media heard about it) knows it is going to create a shitstorm generally and certainly a blizzard of turds are going to be dropping from on high.
He is ready for it. His umbrella in the internal shitstorm is "Fine. You show me what I can cut. Here's the budget. Here are the things we are supposed to do. Do an audit. Look at it penny by penny. You find the fat. I have looked at it line by line and penny by penny. There ain't anyplace to cut. Give me more money or you tell me which homeland security tasks you don't want us to do."
Whenever a department tries to close the Washington Monument, I figure the bureaucrats - not the politicians - deserve defending. If you look closely you won't find fat being protected. They are more than ready to defend the choice. You will not find a fatcat bureaucrat trying to protect an empire. His boss will destroy that guy.
When a department closes the Washington Monument it is a reliable indicator of a cadillac program funded on a bicycle budget.
"I'm not a real air marshal. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express."
I have an idea - why doesn't the US unilaterally cut out all domestic agricultural and industrial subsidies? How much would that save?
Don't know what it would save, but it would COST a whole lot of Republican Congressmen their seats.
These cuts were supposed to be on top of the cuts already done to reduce the number of security inspectors at the airports. Last week when I went through the security gate at PDX, the security person apologized for the LONG lines and said they had just had a reduction in force. So I guess I'm not surprised to see some upset trying to identify more cuts. (Besides which everyone in the Government knows the cuts are because of the destructive tax cut.)
And some Democrats' seats too, at least in the Senate. The saddest thing about porkbarrel pork subsidies just how bipartisan they are.
Or bring our troops home. I'm sure they won't mind, either.