Eliminate the TSA? That’s Old News!
Today’s whatever comes from Operative B, who raises an index finger and says…
| Your Maj, The partial shutdown has revealed a giant secret: the TSA is mostly unnecessary and unneeded. From the San Francisco Airport web page: “Covenant Aviation Security, a private company under contract with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), provides passenger and baggage screening at SFO.” SF uses a private company to perform security screening. They operate independently, but according to DHS rules. Maybe it’s time to return airport security to the people most capable of doing it: the local airports themselves. And maybe the airlines should take more responsibility for passenger screening. We keep hearing about TSA “screeners” and how they either fail to do their jobs or use “random checks” to verify whether that is a colostomy bag or a liquid explosive (really!), or doing a full body search on an infant traveling to Orlando with family (really!). Those are the least of the offenses. And because those TSA “inspectors” are government employees, they can neither be sued nor disciplined for their offenses. Putting security in the hands of private companies would force more sensible security handling. Why? The private employees would be held to a “don’t screw up because we’ll fire you” standard. And the private security company will have the freedom to experiment with more advanced and efficient screening measures such as “passenger profiling”, something the government can’t do because a federal judge will (and has in the past) prevent it. Lastly, it would mean a reduction in the federal workforce accompanied by a reduction in expenditures at DHS. That’s a win-win in anyone’s book. Operative B |
Well, actually, he wrote, and didn’t say it, but here’s the deal.
This is hardly a giant secret. In fact, nearly all of the horror stories about the shutdown largely affect government employees, rather than the hard-working private sector that goes on about its day doing useful things for people.
And the TSA? The Czar beat you to this argument a long time ago. In November of 2010, the Czar advocated turning security over to the airlines themselves as a competitive advantage.
And some of your wrote in with more ideas and some questions about that.
However, GorT dissented with the Czar, and raised some objections that, you will note, did not involve keeping the TSA, either—GorT recommends outsourcing where possible to base standard procedures.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.