What a difference two years and a president from a different political party makes.
Way back in the glory days of September 2016, when the left-wing media could just parrot what their preferred president would say and point out government largesse without blaming said preferred president, Vox published an article titled “The TSA is a waste of money that doesn’t save lives and might actually cost them.”
The article notes that when Homeland Security sent people pretending to be terrorists through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security with guns and bombs, they went undetected 95% of the time. Further, the article claims that TSA security measures have led to more people driving, which is more deadly than air travel:
“The TSA doesn’t save lives, but it probably ends them. One paper by economists Garrick Blalock, Vrinda Kadiyali, and Daniel Simon found that, controlling for other factors like weather and traffic, 9/11 provoked such a large decrease in air traffic and increase in driving that 327 more people died every month from road accidents. The effect dissipated over time, but the total death toll (up to 2,300) rivals that of the attacks themselves,” Vox reported.
The article goes on to cite another paper from these individuals finding that checked baggage screening led to fewer airline passengers, leading to more deaths from car accidents.
So, in 2016, TSA was not just annoying and inefficient, it was actually harmful to the American people.
Fast forward to Tuesday, January 8, 2019. A Republican is president and the government is “shut down” because President Donald Trump wants funding for a border wall and Democrats want… open borders? Now, suddenly, TSA is the most critical safety measure we have as a country. In an article titled “To build the wall, Trump is sacrificing airport security during the government shutdown,” Vox insists Trump is wrong to want a border wall and the TSA is working without pay. (Note: No government employee is currently working without pay as the next pay day is this Friday and they received their previous paychecks.)
“So while the Trump administration is prepared to keep the government shut down to get funding for a wall that will supposedly protect Americans, it is actually weakening the security in gateways where people have actually been stopped: airports,” Vox wrote.
TSA workers are apparently calling out sick since they think they won’t be paid this week (they might not be, or the shutdown will end), creating longer lines at airports and forcing the agency to possibly loosen security measures. The same security measures Vox previously reported do nothing for airport security but may actually kill people.
Vox tweeted out the article in what might have been an attempt to scare people over a lack of airport security, but actually made the shutdown seem like a good thing for travelers.
“Hundreds of TSA agents are calling in sick during the partial government shutdown — and that could mean fewer random pat-downs, bag inspections and other screenings,” the outlet tweeted.
Broadcaster Scot Bertram responded by pointing out the opposing articles from Vox.