s across the US, Transportation Security Administration agents have been "working" -- that is, impeding, harassing, ogling, and groping air travelers -- without pay since Valentine's Day due to a congressional feud over funding for their parent department.
Well, some of them, anyway. Several hundred have quit; quite a few are calling in sick more often.
On March 27, US president Donald Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to start paying TSA employees again, using "funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations." They may start getting paid again as soon as Monday.
They should also STOP getting paid again as soon as possible. Permanently.
The very existence of the TSA has been a costly 25-year mistake. Now, with the DHS funding dispute still in full swing, it's time to correct that mistake by abolishing the agency, sending its workfare clients back into the productive sector, and returning airport security responsibility to airports and airlines.
Let's do a quick cost-benefit analysis:
Cost, part 1: While TSA doesn't have its own budget line -- its operating costs are part of the larger DHS appropriation -- its estimated costs of operation come to about $9 billion per year.
That's about $27 per year from every man, woman, and child in the US, whether that man, woman, or child travels by air or not.
Cost, part 2: The government doesn't offer official statistics on wait times in TSA "security" lines, but estimates put average wait times at 20-30 minutes, and passenger "screenings" per year at 750-800 million.
That's somewhere 250-300 million hours spent standing in "security" lines at airports: At the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, around $2 billion worth of air travelers' time wasted.
And I'm low-balling that number, because the actual wait time isn't the only time travelers waste on TSA. They spend extra time packing in "TSA-friendly" ways. They arrive at airports extra-early just in case the lines are long.
Now, for the benefits:
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TSA doesn't even pretend its screenings have verifiably stopped so much as a single terrorist attack since its founding in 2001.
Is it possible the existence of TSA has had some kind of undetectable, unmeasurable deterrent effect? Sure, but probably less so than could have been achieved by the prior systems adapting and improving their screening techniques after 9/11. Nation-wide uniformity makes it easier for terrorists to know what they're up against; decentralized responsibility and variety makes planning attacks more difficult.
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