A History of the TSA – How We Got into This Mess

I’m amused by those on the Left who want to blame this TSA groping scandal on Bush. Ah, yes, you know it’s all Bush’s fault. 😉

How about a little history lesson.

Shortly after 9/11, Congress addressed the issue of airport security. Senator Ernest Hollings, D-SC, sponsored the Senate version of this legislation, S. 1447. Congressman Don Young, R-AK, sponsored the House version, H.R. 3150. While I would not call Congressman Young any knight in shining armor, and while he was noted for his liberal stance on union issues, one of the major differences between his House version of this legislation and the Senate version was that it allowed airport screeners to be contractor employees. The Senate version federalized all screeners. Bush supported the House version.

As we can see, the Senate version won out on this issue. For reference, see http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/1285.pdf.

Now I’m not alleging that this was strictly a Democrat vs Republican thing. S. 1447 initially passed by a vote of 100-0, and Bush signed the final version of the legislation. But what I am alleging is that the notion that “the government can always do it better” is false. We who wait in lines at post offices and have to deal with the DMV know better. This is definitely a “ruling class” vs “country class” thing (see my post on The Ruling Class). Or, to use the language of Mark Levin, you can call it a “statist” vs “conservative” thing. Statists in Congress include all the Democrats and all too many Republicans. They like government solutions to things.

It’s easy, too, to tie this in to Mormon thinking. Members of the LDS Church, of which I am one, are very familiar with the famous statement by Joseph Smith, “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:39)

There is ingrained in the natural man a desire to have importance. You give someone a job where they can snap their fingers and point, and people have to go where they point, and many people love this authority. And as you create a bureaucracy full of people with power to do these kinds of things, it will lead to abuses. Our framers understood that and crafted a brilliant system of limited federal government with checks and balances and all kinds of safeguards. But activist courts and liberal politicians have been slowly dismantling the constitution since the days of FDR, and this is what we get.

The hope is that people are waking up to this. People see bureaucrats now trying to manage our health care, and it scares them. A grass roots movement is swelling that is calling for a return to that limited government envisioned by our founders. God bless that movement – that is my position.


About David Hall

By Dr. David Hall. Dr. Hall runs The Website Factory, a digital marketing agency. He has had a long-standing interest in politics. As a college student he was Utah State Chairman for both Young Americans for Freedom and Youth for Nixon, and toyed with the idea of a political career.
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One Response to A History of the TSA – How We Got into This Mess

  1. Mark says:

    Boycott Flying! Please join us: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Flying/126801010710392

    Mark,
    The problem with your idea to boycott flying is that the TSA workers are government employees, and their income would be totally unaffected by your idea. Plus, you will only get a fraction of the people to participate, because flying is too convenient and fast, and there will still be enough people going through screening to keep their naked body scanners going and their fingers groping. Yes, you may push airlines to apply pressure to the administration and Congress, but I suspect we have already reached that threshhold, to get those wheels moving.

    For those who want to boycott, I guess I’d say to go ahead. I don’t suppose it will hurt. As far as pressure on the airline industry translates to pressure on Janet Napolitano, it may be helpful. But this administration has shown a great disdain for private industry and seems all too willing to go ahead and be destructive – as we saw in the Gulf oil drilling moratorium. And this entire government shows a great capacity for ignoring the will of the people, as was demonstrated in how they handled protesting constituents in town hall meetings. Oh, yes, I can hear it now – Obama coming on “Meet the Press” and saying how sorry he was that he didn’t explain better the great benefits of these enhanced screening practices, and that the changes happened so fast that it felt to many people like TSA agents were getting too intrusive.

    I will not be joining your boycott, because I have no good way to get from one side of this country to the other without flying on an airline. But I will be joining my voice in protest. Sue, complain, raise a fuss, until the Obama administration takes action. Then, next election, vote in more people who are of a philosophical bent to want to privatize these security screeners.

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