You know what's so weird is that I was told we couldn't privatize because they would cut corners to save money and risk safety. But here we are, with the government running the show and they're holding out and trying to save a few bucks. Meanwhile the debt ceiling is suspended and government spending is out of control in almost every aspect. The federal budget deficit for this fiscal year through the end of June is already $1.39 Trillion with a T. We still have 3 full months of deficit spending to go. This is during a time in which the economy is supposedly booming and the pandemic is over. The entire budget for Air Traffic Services for FY2023 is $4.6 Billion. That's for all the AJT salaries, expenses, and other program costs. Tech Ops, System Ops, Program Management (AJM), Mission Support Services, etc... are all additional budget items. So why on Earth are we constricted by the budget when you're telling me for a measly $2 billion, we could hire 50% more people and be tripping all over one another? That's literal chump change considering we send another billion to Ukraine every week. It would add like 1% to the annual budget deficit.
We have the government calling the shots now and they have an unlimited money printer filled with blank checks and yet we're still only staffed at 83.6% projected nationally and getting worse. I find it hard to believe a privatized ATC entity that had some control over it's funding would do any worse of a job than the bureaucrats are currently doing.
www.forbes.com
