has anyone here actually been affected by

[rwng]

Not totally sure if this is completely due to the sequester but a good friend sent this to me. (he is an air traffic controller)
 

 
If keeping your tower open is important to your community, the time is NOW to submit how closing your tower will negatively affect the national interest.  While the AAAE/ALA team is working diligently here in Washington to keep contract towers open through a possible amendment in the Senate as that chamber turns to consideration of a continuing resolution early this week, it is stillabsolutely critical that you file submissions with FAA if you want to keep your towers open. 
 

 
The FAA will consider information concerning how closure of particular tower operations will adversely affect the national interest in submissions it receives on or before March 13, 2013.  Submissions can be sent to ATO-Terminal Services at ClosureComments@faa.gov[/email] or fax to ATO-Terminal Services at (202) 493-4565[/url]. The FAA plans to finalize the list of facility closures by March 18 and announce the closures on March 20, 2013. 
 

 
Per FAA Chief Operating Officer David Grizzle’s March 8^th email:
 
“National interest considerations include:  (1) significant threats to the national security as determined by the FAA in consultation with the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security; (2) significant, adverse economic impact that is beyond the impact on a local community; (3) significant impact on multi-state transportation, communication or banking/financial networks; and (4) the extent to which an airport currently served by a contract tower is a critical diversionary airport to a large hub.  Please be advised that meeting one or more of the foregoing considerations will not necessarily result in any particular tower remaining open.”
 

 
Points you can make in your submission to FAA, in addition to how shutting down your local tower will negatively impact the national interest:
 

 
·         Based on the FAA’s own Benefit/Cost (B/C) Analysis methodology, the impact of closing 189 Contract Towers could be $13 billion dollars in just the first year.  Conversely, an estimated $94.5 million in savings will be created by closing the those towers on April 7th.  Dr. David A. Byers, AICP, CM of Quadrex Aviation, LLC, Airport Development Services put together the attached brief outlining these calculations and the impact.
 
·[/size]         Given the high importance placed on implementing Safety Management Systems (SMS) by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board,  a Safety Risk Assessment should be conducted at each individual facility prior to any final decisions on closure.   The FAA’s own internal SMS protocols, which cuts across every line of business in the agency, should be followed.
 

 
ALSO IMPORTANT – PLEASE ask all of your local aviation tenants, users, and local business/political leaders to continue to make calls/emails to your congressional delegation. It is CRITICALLY important that we can get as many voices in your communities sending the same message as possible. We need to continue raising the noise level in Washington!
 

 
Local Media Coverage
 
Keep up the media outreach!  As a reminder, you can also direct your local media to contact me or Joel Bacon of the AAAE legislative team if they need more information.  You may also forward any local media stories to Gwen.Basaria@aaae.org[/email] for inclusion on http://savecontracttowersnow.com[/url].
 

 
The message to your local media is simple: 
 
·[/size]         Closing our tower could jeopardize aviation safety and kill jobs in our community.
 

• Closing 189 contract towers represents a 75 percent cut in the 251 contract towers nationwide while the rest of FAA’s budget faces a five percent reduction. A 75 percent cut is highly disproportionate compared to other FAA programs and unjustly discriminates against a program the DOT Inspector General has repeatedly says is a cost-effective program for taxpayers. Bottom line - closing our tower could jeopardize the safety and efficiency of our airport and will certainly mean the significant loss of jobs in our community. DOT and FAA must find other savings before shutting down critical air traffic control towers nationwide. 

 
We have appreciated all of your hard efforts thus far and urge you to keep the fire burning!  We will follow-up with more information regarding traction on a possible legislative solution as we know more.
 

[SHOOTALL]

Even with the reduction, the government agencies get more money than last year, with the exception of the department of defense, which already was getting cut.
 
Some of these agencies and those that run them are trying to maximize the pain caused to others so they can get more money.
 
While so many in the private sector have been having to cut for years, the government has continued to grow.
 
I hate for anyone to be cut...but if that's what it takes so be it.
 
We need about a 50% actual reduction in government.
 
Ben

+1

[ironglow]

  We arte going to see notices of "what is coming" if the sequester goes through, but the money they are running on right now was already appropriated.
   One way we could get hurt..   Looks the the Obamanists are bound they are going to release thousands of illegal alien criminals upon our streets..perhaps they have done it already!
 
  Common sense says if they are here illegal..take them to the border and dump them there..whatever border applies!
 
  IMO..they just wanted to free the criminals onto our streets anyway.  That would serve another purpose..those criminals may get hold of a gun and do some robbing & killing.  Here comes another round of "gun control"..
 
 Worse yet;  this they do while trying to take our guns away.

[SHOOTALL]

it will be suicide for the democrats in the next election next year if Obama inflicts pain on voters.

[ironglow]

  Let's face it...he doesn't like Americans near as much as he likes his own people! LOL

[vabeachman]

This is all about 2 to 3 cents on the dollar.  I can easily save 2 to 3 cents on my dollar, lots more if I tried harder.  Government can do the same easily.  To many privileged and elite, both private and government, democrat and republican feel they deserve more than the common taxpayer.  I would love the have a Senators/Congressman retirement plan.  I would have loved to pay the taxes Romney does.  Stop wasting our money on travel, excessive staffing, parties, retreats, etc.  These government guys like the salary and the benefits we give them, but don't want to return the favor.

[Swampman]

The problem with the cuts is that they aren't where they are needed.  In a few weeks 175 aircraft control towers are going to be shut down.

[vabeachman]

Why are taxpayers paying for private business air control men to begin with?  Make the airlines pay for them.  Not everybody travels by air.  Get rid of that government subsidy.

[mechanic]

The problem with the cuts is that they aren't where they are needed.  In a few weeks 175 aircraft control towers are going to be shut down.

I'm trying to figure why, when they actually don't receive a cut, just a decrease in the increase.
 
Ben

[Swampman]

Why are taxpayers paying for private business air control men to begin with?  Make the airlines pay for them.  Not everybody travels by air.  Get rid of that government subsidy.

Let all of the airlines go out of business?
 

[vabeachman]

Let them pay their own way.  Public Private crap.  Public pays the bills and Private takes the profit.  I really believe in true capitalism, not this state sponsored capitalism we have in the U.S.  The airlines need to take care of themselves without taking money from me.  Let all businesses pay their own way.  If it is a good business it will succeed without government handouts or subsidies.

[Swampman]

None of the airlines have made any money since the 1970s.

[vabeachman]

So what.  That is their fault.  Poor leadership, poor management, poor fiscal responsibility.  Besides, a lot of people in the airline/aerospace industry have made tons of money.  I believe the airlines are very profitable, they just hide it from the stockholders and pay their CEO, COO, CFO, CMYASS too much and waste a lot on misc.

[Swampman]

No, high fuel prices are not their fault.  The folks at the very top make money.  The rest of us just scratch by.  But hey you won't be effected.  Just drink your coffee and piss on the rest of us working class folks.

[ChungDoQuan]

There's that income inequality thing again.

[45-70.gov]

I HAVE BEEN  SLIGHTLT AFFECTED BY SEQUESTER!!


my  IRA  has gone  up  in value


stock  market it at a real high  right  now


i dumped  money into the stock market  when every one was getting out a few years ago


should have bought some  gold too....buy   i think that ship hs sailed.....for now

[vabeachman]

the airlines need to pass the costs on the consumer of their product.  people that use airports need to pay for the airport. making everyone pay for the airports is socialism.  I am loving the sequester.  The night flights out of Fentress have stopped and everything is nice and quiet.  Va. Beach depends heavily upon government.  People are freaking out. 

[magooch]

Not only do I believe that airlines and other air traffic should pay for controllers, but I believe all types of transportation should be cut off of government subsidies.  Municipal bus systems, light rail, and AMTRAk all should make it, or break it on their own.


Our community has a bus system that I have never been on, but every time I buy anything in town, a little piece of sales tax goes to that system.  The buses run around mostly empty.  AMTRAK runs trains right through here every couple of hours and they are mostly empty.  We all know that those trains are highly subsidized.


I wouldn't fly if it was free, so I couldn't care less if all the airlines had to shut down.

[45-70.gov]

Not only do I believe that airlines and other air traffic should pay for controllers, but I believe all types of transportation should be cut off of government subsidies.  Municipal bus systems, light rail, and AMTRAk all should make it, or break it on their own.


Our community has a bus system that I have never been on, but every time I buy anything in town, a little piece of sales tax goes to that system.  The buses run around mostly empty.  AMTRAK runs trains right through here every couple of hours and they are mostly empty.  We all know that those trains are highly subsidized.


I wouldn't fly if it was free, so I couldn't care less if all the airlines had to shut down.

i am with you there too

[vabeachman]

I also agree with magooch.

[Dixie Dude]

My son joined the National Guard to get help paying for college.  They cut his, so this is his last semester to get assistance.  Then on top of that, he has to go to Afganistan in August for 10 months.  To me, this is a contract for joining, you get college tuition and books in return for joining.  Seems like they have renigged on their contract.  I can understand cutting it for anyone new wanting to join, but for those already into it, doesn't seem right.  Like someone said, Michelle could cut out her birthday party.  I don't have birthday parties.  Obama cut limit his golfing to once a month.  Lots of cuts they could make to show they "care".  Even Jimmy Carter turned down the thermostat at the whitehouse and cut a lot of his travel expenses. 
 
If they wanted to cut only $85 billion, they could delay a few F22 Raptors or maybe one ship.  The could cut the foreign aid especially military weapons.  They could cut the high speed trains they are planning to build.  They could all take paycuts and get ALL federal employees payscales in line with private companies and save billions.  Eliminate Obamacare.  Lots of easier cuts. 

[cjclemens]

It's unfortunate to see, but apparently, obama's scare tactics about sequester have actually worked on some people. I thought we were all smart enough to not fall for his ridiculous partisan diatribe.

[DDZ]

Not only do I believe that airlines and other air traffic should pay for controllers, but I believe all types of transportation should be cut off of government subsidies.  Municipal bus systems, light rail, and AMTRAk all should make it, or break it on their own.

Our community has a bus system that I have never been on, but every time I buy anything in town, a little piece of sales tax goes to that system.  The buses run around mostly empty.  AMTRAK runs trains right through here every couple of hours and they are mostly empty.  We all know that those trains are highly subsidized.

I wouldn't fly if it was free, so I couldn't care less if all the airlines had to shut down.

i am with you there too

Me too!
Just an indication of how a government run system works for the tax payers. I have a friend that works for public transportation. Its a unionized bunch for sure. they get x amount of dollars each year from tax payers to run the transportation system. If they don't spend all their money by the end of the year, their amount of increase gets adjusted for the next year. So my friend said to dump money at the end of the year, they start pissing it away in things like handing out tool sets and other goodies to employees. In other words they dump money so they get more next year. 

I agree 110% government should have nothing at all to do with transportation period. They shouldn't be in the mail transportation business either. I agree also if the airlines haven't made any money since the 70's, to damn bad. They should have passed the high jet fuel costs, or any other costs on to the consumers. Thats the way it works.

The whole sequester thing is a farce. Obama knows that people want goodies from the government, and he is using that. It certainly worked to get him elected.   

[powderman]

The only ones affected are the ones that shouldn't be. Cutting the husseins American taxpayers credit cards up would be a great start. Then go to useless govt agencies, etc. POWDERMAN. 

[vabeachman]

Dixie Dude, Sorry about your son getting screwed.  The government and military need to keep their promises.  They can easily afford their promises, but right now the government is trying to hurt as many people as possible until we all cry that it hurts too much so we let them have their way.  The Sequestor is just a decrease in the increase, not really a true cut, they have seen this coming and now they are trying to scare us.  The sky is falling.

[jimster]

but right now the government is trying to hurt as many people as possible until we all cry that it hurts too much so we let them have their way.

Yup, just what I was sayin...they are hurting people on purpose, and spending gobs of money on thousands of things like studying why lesbians are heavy set, food for mars, gold fish...thousands of things like this...and somehow they have actually convinced people here we need to spend 3.7 trillion... They even have some people convinced that private jobs are actually connected to government

Most private sector jobs are government jobs indirectly.

...I live by a guy who quit where I work 20 years ago and started his own tree removal business from the ground up, if you ask him his only connection to government is lots of taxes and regulations. I have no idea how his job is connected to government...but hey...I guess they have some people convinced we need a large bloated government that spends with no control.
We all have our own ideas I guess.

[powderman]