Don’t talk about James Comey and his expected bombshell testimony to Congress. Look at me instead – I’m talking about Infrastructure Week!
Thus begins this week with our president, Donald Trump.
But actually, you’ll notice, Trump isn’t talking about infrastructure at all. Really talking about infrastructure would mean talking about a budget that he can’t get passed.
What he’s really talking about is a long-shot plan to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system while at the same time giving the airlines a tax cut. Currently, America’s air traffic controllers are government employees and part of the Federal Aviation Administration, and the airlines pay taxes to cover the approximate $10 billion annual cost to pay them and provide the equipment for them.
Trump said his plan would reduce the number of flight delays and wait times that cost consumers millions of dollars. “We live in a modern age,” Trump said at the White House on Monday, “but our air traffic control system is stuck, painfully, in the past.”