Really? You can’t Pay Your Babysitter?

Really? You can’t Pay your Babysitter?

The President of the Air Traffic Controllers Association, Paul Rinaldi was on television adding to the chorus of terrible impacts the partial shutdown of the federal government is having on everyday people. He told the story of one air controller family. Both the husband and wife are controllers. The wife told him that one or the other is going to have to stay home to watch the kids because they can’t pay for day care. As a result, air travel will be unsafe as more controllers don’t show up for work. When asked if air safety has been compromised, he backed off quickly and did the “but”. [Who knows what the future holds if this doesn’t end soon.] I had to think about this family’s plight for a minute.

First, legislation has already been passed to provide back pay for those federal workers who are in fact working through the shutdown. I doubt very much if the daycare center would turn away a regular paying customer knowing they are affected by the shutdown and knowing money is forthcoming. Second, the median income for air traffic controllers is around $124,000 with typical salary at just under $141,000. Top earners are paid over $175,000. (google)  Either the couple or the President is lying about the situation or this couple is financially ignorant.

Either way, these are the kinds of stories that are supposed to have us taxpayers crying for these poor workers and imploring our Representatives to open up the government. It didn’t take long for the tried and true “it’s for the children” line of the left to be inserted into yet another policy discussion. Rather than argue the merits of a physical barrier, the left will pull on the heartstrings of the population to win and make no mistake, it’s all about winning at this point.