Due to their inactions and going ahead and leaving for a summer break, the Congress has created a situation where 4,000 FAA workers are on furlough and tens of thousands of thousands of airport construction workers around the country have also been laid off AND we will lose almost a billion dollars of revenue during the recess.
This is disgusting incompetence and malfeasance beyond belief on the part of everyone involved.
For background on what the exact issues are, here is an excellent transcript of a report by Judy Woodfuff presented on NPR yesterdayBudget Impass, Partial Shutdown Costing FAA millions in Lost Revenue
If you read, you will discover that the underlying issue is really about unions. But whatever, just like the deficit ceiling, all that is needed is for a six week temporary extension of FAA authority.
I don't know how these things work technically, but someone somehow needs to call these aholes back into session and get this extension passed so that the f-ing Congress isn't adding to both unemployment and the deficit that they scream about and milk so effectively.
If they can't be called into session, then President Obama should figure out how to issue an executive order of some kind that saves these jobs and revenue. For once, it would be something that would actually help real,live breathing, working Americans instead of the fat cat puppeteers.
My sympathies to all the FAA and construction workers who have had their paychecks withheld and their lives thrown into chaos because of these incompetent political drones.