What?? You don't consider paying the FAA workers who were laid off last week, EXCESSIVE SPENDING, do you?? Well, maybe you do.
I don't think the furlough of some FAA workers is related at all to the debt ceiling,and your ire at the House is unfounded .The House has passed a continuing resolution for FAA funding .It is the Senate that is blocking further movement on the FAA.
The Senate doesn't like the House bill... so they created the situation where 4,000 FAA workers and other construction workers aren't working today.
As you know ;there are 2 real issue in the standoff .One is the attempt to force Delta Airline to unionize. The other is small subsidies to small airports that the House would eliminate.
Previously if a Delta worker didn't want to unionize all they had to do was ignore the union attempts. Anyone who didn't votes was considered a no vote.
New rules dictated by the Obama National Mediation Board says that only registered votes are counted. As you know ,unionization campaigns can get quite aggressive. Workers who do not want unions are targeted and pressured to vote in favor . The new rules forces the workers to indicate their preference.
Delta voted under the new rules and still voted down unionizing. The impass is that the House puts the kabash on the new rules. That is why the Reid Senate has refused to pass the continuing resolution funding the FAA. It is the Senate that is responsible for the furloughs.
BTW ; since July 23 planes still take off and land across the land. Air traffic controllers and essential maintenance personel are on the job. Hmmm
There'll be no cuts. At BEST there'll be a slowdown in the GROWTH, and they'll CALL it a cut.
The cuts won't pay the interest on the debt.
The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-aaa-rating-...204040123.html