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The Tax and Spend Spectator
Snazzy Sequestered Screeners
Our friends at TSA are going on a shopping spree.
Just when you think it can’t get any crazier, the Washington politicians go another step higher on the lunacy scale.
With the automatic spending cuts, known as the sequester, cutting only two cents per dollar out of the bloated federal budget, a budget that’s grown 71 percent faster than inflation over the past two decades, the federal scaremongers are rushing around putting padlocks on control towers at the nation’s airports.
We’re supposed to think a measly two percent cut in spending, something most any business or household could handle if their spending was out of control and unsustainable, makes it impossible for the government to launch an aircraft carrier or operate control towers.
Still, if we’re lucky enough to avoid a crash landing, the treat we’ll see inside the airports is something new and special, a handsome conglomeration of sharp-dressed government employees, newly outfitted at taxpayers’ expense and ready to squeeze the legs of incoming passengers and snap a few naked photos.
Just two days before the automatic federal spending cuts took effect, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced it had awarded a $50 million one-year contract for new uniforms for airport screeners, clothes that will manufactured partially in Mexico.
Last November, the nation’s 50,000 newly unionized airport screeners ratified their first collective bargaining agreement.
The contract gives screeners the federal perk of having “more say in what they wear on the job,” reported the Star-Ledger in Newark.
Screeners not only have “more say” about what they wear and how they look but they also got the nation’s increasingly financially-stretched taxpayers to pick up the $50 million tab.
For the 50,000 employees, that’s $1,000 each for the new outfits, just for the first year.
The lucky company that was awarded the $50 million contract is VF Imagewear, owner of Lee Brand and Wrangler Hero. Nice stuff, sort of the look of a fake Montana cowboy.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the sequester will force furloughs at the TSA and is warning of increased waiting times at airports, plus there might be no one in the control towers, but the good news is that the non-furloughed screeners who are still at work will be looking mighty fine.
What taxpayers are buying for the screeners is listed on a TSA fact sheet to employees: “TSA will provide your initial uniform issue consisting of 3 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 ties, and one belt, sweater, socks, and jacket.”
That’s everything but shoes and underwear. To have the shoes be style coordinated with the new outfits and able to help agents from falling as they chase jihadists around the airports, the employee-supplied shoes are federally mandated to be “black leather with non-slip soles.”
Also, instead of just having the screeners tell the government their shirt and trouser sizes, the TSA fact sheet says there will be special fittings: “You will be measured for your new uniforms at your first orientation session.”
If taxpayers are paying for these individual fittings, say at $30 each, that’s another $1,500,000, unless VF Imagewear is picking up the tab.
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
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Pecos Pete| 3.8.13 @ 7:17AM
Typical waste by Fecal Govt. I am surprised that the color of uniforms wasn't brown; but then I remembered King O's bumper stickers are about the same color of blue. And OFA's logo blue is pretty close to the uniform color. The OFA's web site base color is blue. Nothing wrong with the color blue. Just that King O and his czars make me blue.
notfooled| 3.8.13 @ 10:01AM
Blueshirts=Brownshirts?
My guess is they do.
The Bum likes blue, Hitler preferred brown.
Moe Blotz| 3.8.13 @ 9:34AM
Every article I have read here on American Spectator has referred to the recent sequestration as spending cuts. The real designation is a reduction in the rate of spending growth and our elite rulers will get to spend billions more than they did last year. Please stop referring to spending cuts since that has not happened.
BShep| 3.8.13 @ 9:53AM
2012 budget $100.00.
2013 budget $108.00.
2013 budget after sequestration $105.50.
Oh, the humanity. The cuts are going to kill people and starve children. Planes will fall from the sky. Dogs and cats will sleep together.
Wait, you mean the amount spent will still go UP? Where are the cuts????
You gotta splain it to the LIVs.
BShep| 3.8.13 @ 9:56AM
You should also mention the three full time calligraphers on the WH payroll. Their salaries cost the taxpayers $277, 000 per year.
The president gets hand written invitations to send to his peeps. We get planes falling from the sky.
PolishKnight| 3.8.13 @ 10:26AM
Here in NoVA, the government office workers are in a panic and claiming the sky is falling. It's a joke of course since if spending is not truly being cut, why are they panicked?
The answer appears to be that they buy into their own BS. When I hear a leftist's disingenuous arguments, I could at least respect them for being effective debaters. But when they believe their own myths, that makes them pathetic and not in a good way.
Ronsch| 3.8.13 @ 12:51PM
To quote from "Independence Day"..."You don't actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?"
JimH| 3.8.13 @ 1:01PM
What, no jackboots?
Occam's Tool| 3.8.13 @ 6:44PM
Ralph: The clothes will actually cost $50.00 to manufacture. The company will charge the government $1000.00 per, partially due to the 5000 pages of regulations each item will have to meet.
Brubaker| 3.8.13 @ 7:32PM
$1,000 per person for work clothes? Someone is getting a sizable kickback. Janet, how's it going?
Alan| 3.9.13 @ 10:27AM
Nothings too good for the Federal Govt.'s preatorian guard.
Stan Redmond| 3.10.13 @ 1:42PM
We can't have the most hated of all Americans in unsnazzy uniforms. The TSA welcomes the world to America. The TSA fondles all travelling America. The TSA will soon randomly inspect all Americans. The TSA employs otherwise unemployable Americans.
They gotta look good.
By the way who the hell would want to work for the TSA anyway? Do they not realize they really are the most hated of all people? My stomach aches when I walk in to an airport and I see those rediculous "officers" in their gestapo blue uniforms. Regardless of how courteous the food servers or airline staff may be the TSA is there to absolutely ruin any pleasantness (not that their is much) of flying.
homme nike air max BW | 3.11.13 @ 5:23AM
from falling as they chase jihadists www.shoxinfr.com/nike-free-50-c-40.html around the airports, the employee-supplied shoes are federally mandated to be “black leather with non-slip soles.”