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TSA failures: just another case of get whatcha pay for..
By WDavidStephenson | November 16, 2007
Guess what, folks? 
Until we demand changes in federal spending priorities, the latest, probably most egregious, TSA screening failures are gonna keep on happening.
It’s yet another example of the failure to pursue the war on terror on a strategic, systems-thinking basis.
All you have to do to is check out the National Priorities Project’s trade-offs page, where you can see what alternative spending would be feasible if the Air Force-had-to-hold-a-bake-sale approach were adopted. You can figure out the trade-offs for your state, or even break it down to your Congressional District (in the illustration, if the FY 2007 spending on nuclear defense was cut, they figure that the savings for my district alone would allow hiring 513 port container inspectors. Other juicy alternatives you may want to play with include cutting the tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% or eliminating FY 2008 for the Cesspool Otherwise Known As the War in Iraq..).
That alone ain’t the solution: we’ve got to start paying individual TSA screeners a decent salary and using workplace innovations that would avoid them not seeing the forest for the trees (my latest personal involvement had to do with throwing out my tube of toothpaste that had started life as more than a 3 oz. tube, but now obviously was down to 1 oz. or less. It’s called pragmatism, folks…). Check out the trade-offs for yourself, and then call the members of your Congressional delegation to demand reallocation of funds — they bear much of the blame for not having the intestinal fortitude to say enough is enough.
BTW: National Priorities Project is a great example of my latest crusade: transparent government..
Technorati tags: homeland security DHS Department of Homeland Security War on Terror airport safety terrorism antiterrorism Congress publicdata government transparency transparent government networked homeland security National Priorities Project systems thinking homeland security 2.0 Transportation Safety Administration
TSA
Topics: policy and politics | |
