Travel and the TSA
I have been on the road every week this year, Minneapolis, Tahoe, NYC, SFO and PHX and got to experience the “joy” of travel. One thing I noticed is a huge increase in the number of TSA agents at every airport. Let me first say based on the fear of being added to a body cavity search list, that the TSA does a superb job protecting us from all enemies foreign and domestic. (I hope that did the trick) But there is no lack of them. I must admit the lines to get through the checkpoints seem to be shorter so perhaps the increase in employees is working. It is amazing to think a brand new government agency evolved from nothing to a huge organization in such a short period of time. Perhaps we should keep this in mind as the discussion of new government entities are being discussed.
BTW, the TSA budget for FY 2009 is $7.1b, about $24 for each of the 300M U.S. citizens.