flow control (12. 859)

Due to the ongoing US government shutdown with thousands of air-traffic controllers compelled to work as emergency essential employees for delayed pay—once appropriations are approved but have already gone seven weeks without a pay cheque, having to pay for transportation, childcare and manage all other household finances without income—the strain the situation is putting on staff, the Federal Aviation Administration is executing a phased plan to reduce scheduled flights at forty metropolitan hubs, the country’s busiest by up to ten percent. Whilst this will alleviate some of the pressure on employees who are calling out over sheer exhaustion and inability to afford to make the commute to the airport, we don’t suspect that this manufactured crisis, following on from several others that the Republicans and administration refuses to own, will cause the Democrats to cave and concede to reopening the government for a short stint of a few weeks until the stalled continuing resolution runs out again on 21 November. It is a pain point and makes for dramatic reporting and the flying public—only about twenty percent of the population—if they do travel, travel during the upcoming holidays, potentially disrupting a percentage of planned vacations and reunions, but Democrats did not fold over the prospect of military service members going unpaid or nutrition supplements running out and certainly won’t for the inconvenience of some when there’s more at stake. Besides the administration found solutions, albeit temporary and of questionable legality for those other problems they caused and expect to get praise for fixing them—only prolonging the shutdown, cobbling together for optics and vital services so the majority of the public remains in splendid isolation and cushioned from the effects of a dysfunctional and indentured federal workforce.