TSA 'Security Fee' Expected To Double Next Year, Current Level Of Ineptness To Remain Unchanged
from the rights-to-be-violated-twice-as-effectively-in-fiscal-2014 dept
The TSA, having earned every bit of its ~$8 billion/year, is now looking for just a little bit more. As Kevin Underhill at the ultra-enjoyable Lowering the Bar blog notes, the "security fee" that's been tacked onto tickets is about to increase -- more than doubling in most cases.
[T]he AP says that Congress is currently debating whether to double the TSA fee that is currently $5 per ticket. (It's actually $2.50 per "enplanement," but close enough.) Passengers pay that, not the airlines. The TSA collects about $1.8 billion from us every year just through this fee, and in return, provides virtually nothing in addition to what's already provided by (1) alert passengers and (2) reinforced cockpit doors.And it will definitely be passengers paying the fee. The CEO of Delta Airlines has already gone on the record to inform the public that this increase will be all theirs.
"Airfares are going up for consumers. So that tax increase will not be absorbed by Delta," Richard Anderson said at a Delta Air Lines Inc. presentation for investors in New York on Wednesday.As if there was ever any doubt. Any new fee levied by the government, whether to cable companies, wireless providers or airlines, is immediately dumped into the laps (or rather, extracted from the pockets) of Joe Public.
The AP story offers a slightly deeper explanation of the fee that doesn't do much to justify the increase.
The fee is meant to offset some of the cost of the Transportation Security Administration. A report last year by the Government Accountability Office found that the fees currently cover about 29 percent of the cost of airline security. The higher fee is meant to get travelers to pay for more of those costs, although some of the new money is slated to be spent on non-security items.Hmm. As far as I know, every government program is already paid for by travelers, including our extra-useless Theatrum Satis Absurdum. The only way to get travelers to pay more of the cost is to double-dip, first through income taxes and second, through this ridiculous "security fee."
Not that this fee increase will result in better or more efficient "security." Travelers will just pay more and see nothing in return. The $5 fee will increase to roughly $11.20 per round trip ticket, with some of the funds earmarked for "covering" security costs, and the rest vanishing into the "non-security" ether.
In exchange, travelers will continue to be saved from toy guns carried by toy monkeys, small children with rare medical conditions, breast cancer survivors and dozens of "suspicious people" given "ocular patdowns" by Behavioral Detection Officers employing the best in modern junk science.
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Filed Under: security fee, tsa
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* - according to google translate.
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When a real incident happens --
I hope I'm wrong. But given their history, this seems to be the way to bet.
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Re: When a real incident happens --
http://bit.ly/1bC8BuP
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Re: Re: When a real incident happens --
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Sources of payment
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And a wonderful illustration it is
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You underestimate the TSA
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Sequester is likely the real cause
The sequester arbitrary cuts spending by a certain percentage across the board in all government programs, like the TSA. If the TSA doubles the fee however, they probably won't need to cut anything.
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I have no problem with this...
Seriously, I think about how much good they do... rifling through our bags and taking extra money and electronics that could potentially be used by terrorist sock moneys to wreak all sorts of havock!
Thank god for the TSA! Without which, the terrorists could have never won.
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Hell, even with small fees increases, my ISP manages to increase the ineptitude of it's customer service agent by at least 400% (my conservative estimate). Just another example of the government lagging behind privacy industry.
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Or were you being sarcastic?
Voted funny, just in case you did intend to amuse.
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Generally, people fly because there is not alternative. If I could realistically travel in any other way, I would. But I can't.
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I don't mind
As long as passenger participation is optional: "Grope, or no grope, sir?"
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TSA is moving even more toward totally funded irrelevance
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Swim or take the bus
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Unwanted
So really, this is increasing the fee to pay for other things marketed as a "debt reduction" measure. Sure, some of that money may be used to fund the TSA, but I'm guessing it will be rapidly diverted to some Representative's pet project in the district.
All blame lies on Congress. Fix the cause, not the symptoms.
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That is an awesome deal
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