This article was originally published by Ron Paul at the Ron Paul Institute
Hard as it is to believe, airline travel recently became even more unpleasant. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees being required to work without pay for the duration of the government shutdown resulted in many TSA workers calling in sick. The outbreak of “shutdown flu” among TSA employees forced some large airports to restrict the number of places mandatory TSA screenings were performed, making going through screening even more time-consuming and providing one more reason to shut down the TSA.
Airline security should be provided by airlines and airports. Private businesses, such as airlines, have an incentive to ensure their customers’ safety without treating them like criminal suspects or worse. Security personnel hired by, and accountable to, airlines would not force a nursing mother to drink her own breast milk or steal a stuffed lamb from a wheelchair-using three-year-old and subject the child to such an intensive screening that she cries “I don’t want to go to Disneyworld.” Those who claim that the TSA is necessary to keep us safe should consider that the Department of Homeland Security’s own studies show that TSA’s screenings and even the intrusive pat-downs are ineffective at discovering hidden guns, explosives, and other weapons.
TSA employees have no incentives to please, or even care about the well-being of, airline passengers. Instead, their jobs depend on pleasing politicians and bureaucrats. If we have learned anything since 9/11, it is that most politicians are more concerned with appearing to be “doing something” about security than actually reducing the risk of terrorist attacks. That is why politicians’ response to 9/11 was a series of actions — such as creating the TSA, passing the PATRIOT Act, and invading Iraq — that trade our real liberties for phantom security. Sometimes, pro-TSA politicians will bemoan the TSA’s “excesses” and even call for “reforming” the agency in order to pretend they care about their constituents’ rights.
Restoring responsibility for providing security to private businesses will encourage the development of new and innovative ways to more effectively provide security. In a free market, airlines and airports could compete for business on the basis that their flights are safer or their screening is less unpleasant then that of their competitors. If airlines were able to set their own security policies, they would likely allow pilots to carry firearms.
Private companies also strive to be consistent in providing services. Therefore, a company providing private security would never inconvenience its customers because of a “temporary shutdown.”
Because government operations are funded by coercive taxation rather than voluntary choices of consumers, federal officials cannot rely on the price system to inform them of whether they need to increase or decrease spending on airline security. In the private sector, businesses that charge more for security — or any other good or service — than individuals are willing to pay lose customers. Also, if businesses do not spend enough on security, people concerned about safety will be unwilling to use their services. Privatizing airline security is the only way to ensure that the “correct” amount of resources is being spent on airline safety.
In the 18 years since Congress created the TSA, the agency has proven itself incapable of providing real security, but more than capable of harrying Americans and wasting taxpayer dollars on security theater. Congress should permanently close the TSA and return responsibility for security to private businesses.
Most excellent article.
.
I am going to the south pole next year. I’m training every day.
Ya ya ya, same old song and dance. Try this on for size!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzfPhQ0CU8o
Jimmy Page was my idol since I was a boy. I know you think he is whatever but…. He was the best guitarist I knew. By the time I learned to play guitar I had several men I loved (guitar wise). Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmoore, Toni Iommi. Old school loved older bands. After seeing the song remains the same at a midnight movie I knew I had to learn guitar! I was possesed! I found a great teacher and worked my ass off. I was not a natural super talent but he said I was worthy of excellerated learning. That was 30 years ago. My how time flies! Seems like yesterday. Anyway I love Jimmy and Ritchie and Iommi!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDVnjCwCYCs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ZnWgvw84o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdWPkgtaOTw
Since I was a child I always loved this man. His songs spoke to me deeply. God bless him and his legacy of music and spirit…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc2eevoZ_e0
Maranatha, Nothing you could ever say or do even do compares to what I have experienced. I have known since I was a child that I am part of this earth. I am a cancer sign for what thats worth. I am probably more connected to this planet than you. In my younger (teenage) years I had a place I would get stoned and sit and meditate. It was on the side of a hill facing south. I did this usually on cloudy nasty days and just stared at the mountains and clouds and took it in. I had been all over the mountains I watched. It was trance like as I just sat there and absorbed the reality or the dream. I love that place and I love what it said to me in unspoken words. It told me I am one with it all. I will never forget that time. I have had several experiences later in life with the same message. I know you hate this but mushrooms will bring you to a consciousness that will actually show you the fractals of reality. Man has used them for thousands of years to get just that. You are missing out big time by pigieon holing yourself!
When I was doing my recon training a Vietnam vet was brought in to speak to the course. He told us that a lot of money and favors were used to keep certain information off of John Denver’s bio. Apparently, John Denver not only served in Vietnam, but he was a very successful sniper. In fact, his song “Sunshine on My Shoulder” is actually about snipers principles of concealment.
I can’t swear to the truth of the information. I just though I’d throw it out there as a bit of UFI.
Agreed!
Ron Paul got my vote and still does. It would have been interesting what might have happened if he had been elected President.
Making TSA a unionized federal agency was and is a stupid idea.
We will live with this mistake for years
It is the same reason the VA will never provide decent healthcare to veterans. Federal employee unions should be illegal. The only people getting good healthcare at the VA are VA employees. The VA, like the TSA, is a job program for people that cannot get a job in the private sector.
Yes, I also support shuttering the VA. Keep Walter Reed open, close all the rest. Medicare Part V (for veterans) would be much cheaper and easier.
Sounds great. As long as the public has the right to sue for damages when the airlines fail to provide security then it’s cool. Expect ticket prices to go way up y’all.
We all know the TSA is just a jobs program for lower IQ Democrats.
Privatize it. I have very little choice but to fly if I need to travel out of my county or state. I despise the TSA.
Let me tell you what is fucked up.
In June of 2018 (six months ago) we flew from Houston to Miami for a cruise.
The first plane we were on had to return to the gate because the A/C system broken and the engine was malfunctioning. That was a 3 hour delay with an additional 1 hour delay waiting on the Miami tarmac waiting for a gate to open.
The return trip had the plane changed because the return plane broke down a the gate. We finally changed planes to a third plane and that one too broke down and had to be fixed before take off.
3 broken planes. WTF? I will never fly American Airlines again. That was the only time I ever felt unsafe flying. It was like they got their planes from the junk yard.
I’m betting there would be a huge public resistance to shutting down the TSA.
Neither the gaterapist nor the prospective terrorist should pass as a normal person, at family functions, the hiring line, or in public, ffs.
Also, shame on the lemmings, who used nationalized facilities, accepting the attitude that everyone was equally suspicious.
Amen! The TSA is pathetic excuse for security and, in fact, is nothing more than a government jobs program for morons that wouldn’t be hired as security at the local mall.
Once you allow uncle scam to start a new program/department, you will never get it expunged. Only thing that will work now is when everyone catches on that uncle scam’s fiat ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on. I salute you uncle scam and your stooges.
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Once you allow uncle scam to start a new program/department, you will never get it expunged. Only thing that will work now is when everyone catches on that uncle scam’s fiat ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on. I salute you uncle scam and your stooges.
……………./’¯/)
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…../´¯/’…’/´¯¯`·¸
../’/…/…./……./¨¯\
(‘(…´…´…. ¯~/’…’)
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Oh BTW! Take your “medicare for all” and shove it up your ass!
Also, you want to kill babies saying that it’s a womans right, but then you want to take the guns to save the children! Go fuck yourselfs demons!
Put me on “the list”.
I’m your huckleberry.
I made my first connecting flight at the age of six at O’ Hare airport in the early 1970’s.Now you couldn’t pay me to fly anymore!How degrading it feels to be herded through an X-Ray, being made to empty your pockets take off your shoes remove your belt pour out your coffee ect. Last time I flew even that wasn’t enough, some TSA twit didn’t like my looks I guess and separated me from the herd to spray bomb detector crap all over my hands.Other flights they waved me through and detained and groped elderly women instead. The TSA isn’t even about “security” it’s about getting Americans acclimated to having no rights,to being made to stand in lines, to being groped, to being violated.Most of those TSA goons are losers who couldn’t even cut it as a mall cop!
A lot of folks recognized the TSA for what it really was quite soon after they appeared on the scene… just another intrusion into our lives by Big Brother. My wife and I wanted NONE of that, so opted out by refusing to fly anywhere. We can easily afford to fly 3-4 times every year but have decided not to spend ANY of our money on air travel. Instead, we travel by car where the trips are far more interesting, the food MUCH better, and we can meet and talk with interesting people. Yes, it is slower to travel by car but since we are retired, that’s not really much of a problem. The scenery is MUCH better when seen from the ground. Air travel is a choice, not a need and we choose not to be sexually molested just so we can get where we want to go 8-10 hours sooner. The time we spend is not lost but is, instead, very well spent. So, air travel? Just say NO thanks and plan a far more enjoyable trip without all the rigmarole of airlines and TSA agents.
Nothing like getting groped by a 250 lb black woman. Unless you like that kind of thing.
Get rid of this PHONY program covering up the real crimes. Privatizing always works better. Otherwise PERVERTS run it!
TSA is not the least bit about security. They are there to get the American people used to more government intrusion in their lives……… “Oh, we’ve got to have the TSA to keep is safe.” “Please go ahead and feel up my 12 year old daughter to keep us safe!” “Anything the government wants to do to keep us safe, by all means do it.” “Terrorism is all around us, I’ll give up my rights for safety.” “Go ahead and plant that chip in my hand for my safety.” Lots of government brainwashed people out there……
Send all of the TSA to the Mexican boarder and have the US ARMY imprison the TSA agents forcing agents to conduct patdowns and check all documents on all people crossing the boarder without a valid American ID.
After doing a few million patdowns of these shitassaliens perhaps them TSA obesists will get their jest deserves.
Remember when the US taxpayer bought several million rolls of TP and several million pairs of depends for the illegal aliens that crossed during the PUTRID SOETORO reign of terroids?