OPINION:
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went on national television news and told the watching audience he’s wrapped 10 investigations into late and canceled flights and has “launched another ten or so that we’re going to pursue.”
That’s great. Ten plus ten equals 20 — now only another, umm, 10,000 or so and surfaces will really start to be scratched.
And 10,000 is perhaps low.
Between the Saturday and Monday of the Independence Day weekend alone, U.S. airlines canceled almost 2,500 flights, FlightAware reported. One long weekend; 2,500 cancellations; thousands more delays.
“In a June 16 meeting, Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, told airlines that he’d be closely monitoring their performance. The very next day, his own flight from Washington to New York was canceled,” The New York Times wrote.
It’s time for Buttigieg to go.
Even simple solutions don’t meet with his approval.
Pilot shortages are plaguing the industry. One talked-about solution is to extend the current mandatory 65-year-old retirement age of pilots to 67.
Buttigieg’s response?
No.
“These retirement ages are there for a reason and the reason is safety,” he told Fox’s Mike Emanuel in a weekend interview. “I’m not going to be on board with anything that could compromise safety. Now, what’s clearly the case is we need to cultivate, train and support a new generation of qualified pilots.”
So it’s OK for a 79-year-old man with obvious mental deficiencies to run the United States of America, but not OK to allow a 65-year-old experienced pilot to keep his or her job for another two years? At a time of great national need, no less?
Buttigieg has no answers.
He has no solutions.
“We have just concluded another ten investigations on airlines on these issues and have launched another ten or so that we’re going to pursue to make sure that the consumers and passengers are protected,” he said, about passenger refunds for canceled flights.
He’s also pledged to support high school and college programs to train more individuals to become pilots.
What a trooper.
Airlines, by one count, were handed $54 billion or so in tax-paid bailouts so as to keep them operational and staffed in COVID-19 times and by logical extension, thereafter — and Buttigieg’s big idea to address the obvious misuse of these funds is to call for more high schoolers to consider piloting as a career?
Oh, and launch 20 investigations.
That’s not just subpar. That’s a new category of failing.
If that’s all he’s got, it’s time for Buttigieg to go.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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