Category Archives: ethics

Another Obama Sequester Fail

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Recall that California’s gas and oil industry has been shrinking for years.  It’s a slow shrinkage, but in the present political clime—the green political clime—it’s been inexorable.  This graph tells the tale (ignore, for this post the loud contrast with Texas).

Now this administration’s Bureau of Land Management, the agency responsible for leasing and permitting of Federal lands to oil and gas producers, is claiming that it’s helpless to reverse this trend—the sequester, you see.  The BLM has announced that it

will stop scheduled oil and gas leasing on public lands for the rest of the fiscal year. At least two auctions of more than 3,000 acres with promising oil deposits have already been canceled.

As the WSJ put it,

The state and feds forfeit the money from the leases. The industry can’t move ahead with its planned drilling, which wastes money. And Californians—in a state where nearly one of 10 workers is jobless—lose the chance at hundreds and perhaps thousands of high-paying jobs.

Never mind that lease income, and future royalties from the extractions, are both money makers for the government.  The sequester won’t let them make the money.

Nothing circular or political here.  Mm, mm.

An Honest Citizen

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…and a Government Citizen.

The Federal government is required to certify whether an act of terrorism has occurred so businesses can determine related loss recovery.  One outcome of this is that if a business did not specifically buy terrorism coverage, a formal designation of terrorism could make it harder to recoup a loss.

Now consider the Boston Marathon attack.  Lots of small businesses that were impacted by that disaster did not buy terrorism coverage.

Enter, stage left, the Government Citizen:

Boston Mayor Tom Menino told reporters at a press conference Saturday that he has confidence Obama will not sign anything that would hurt businesses impacted by the bombings[.]

Enter, stage right, the Honest Citizen:

David Sapers, owner of candy store Sugar Heaven, said he took a risk by not purchasing terrorism coverage.

“This is a terrorism act, and we’re not [going to] change the rules because people want to recoup money from the insurance companies[.]

Hmm….

Clinton’s Signature

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Much has been made of the fact that memos that, among other matters, denied requests for additional security for the Benghazi consulate went out over then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s signature.  In particular, the Left insists that it’s entirely routine for others to affix the boss’ signature to correspondence which the boss never actually sees, much less reads, before that correspondence goes out.

The Left is correct in this.  In large organizations, it is a commonplace practice for subordinates to generate and transmit correspondence that the boss never sees but on which, because of the subject matter involved, the boss’ signature is required in order to give the necessary weight to the correspondence.  State is no different in this regard.

What the Left omits to mention, though—and what the right has missed—is that when subordinates put the boss’ signature on a document, it’s done strictly in accordance with a carefully specified policy, developed and promulgated by that boss, that lays out the subjects and types of correspondence for which this is permissible.  And the boss is briefed, usually beforehand and if not as soon as possible after transmittal, on the content of what he just “signed.”

Clinton knew full well what sorts of correspondence were going out over her signature, and she knew full well the contents of the particular correspondence in question: that she was denying upgrades to Benghazi security that were being requested, repeatedly, by the Benghazi security team and by the Chief of Mission, the soon-to-be-murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens.  That correspondence was executed entirely in accordance with her carefully designed policy.  That she denied the requests of her experts on the ground, and now denies knowing that she denied, speaks volumes about her competence and her integrity.

Alternatively, it’s entirely possible that Clinton, as she claims, really didn’t know what was being sent out over her signature.  Since the policy governing those transmittals and their associated briefings was entirely hers, such a failure also speaks volumes about her competence.

Obama’s Regulation Costs

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Heritage Foundation estimates that annual regulatory costs increased during Obama’s first four years by nearly $70 billion—with more regulations in store for term two.

And that’s just the 130, or so, so-called major regs.  President Barack Obama’s EPA accounted for $45 billion all by themselves.

So much for Obama’s “commitment” to cut the red tape in Washington.

He Built This

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President Barack Obama and his DoT folks, abetted by the press, have done their best to create a commercial travel problem out of the Obama Sequester.  The press, including “fair and balanced” Fox News, are focusing on the ATC Controller furlough-caused 1,600 delays per day since the furlough scheme went in.

What the press cynically omit to mention is that ATC Controllers handle 28,500+ commercial, 27,000+ general aviation, 24,500+ air taxi and charter, 5,000+ military, and 2,000+ air cargo flights, or more than 87,000 flights each day.

Now we’re six days into the Obama-directed Huerta Furlough, and the FAA’s own Web site shows the lack of widespread “staffing” delays.  If you’re patient, and track that site through a day, you’ll see that the “staffing” delays are concentrated in the New York area with an occasional bump in LA or Chicago.

Michael Huerta, FAA Administrator, was asked during his testimony before the House Wednesday why he couldn’t focus ATC furloughs—to the extent they’re needed at all—on regional and small airports, leaving these larger, much busier airports fully staffed.  Huerta responded that he couldn’t pick winners and losers from among the nation’s airports.

Which, of course, is exactly what he’s doing when he elevates those regional and small airports to the same level as the US’ air traffic hubs.  Oh, and maximizing what little pain the FAA’s share of the sequester can cause.

Update: The FAA…has suspended furloughs for air traffic controllers….

Air traffic facilities are supposed  to return to regular staffing through today, and  normal ops should be achieved by tonight.