TSA Creator: Dismantle, Privatize the Agency; “The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats”

Shocker that liberals would take over what was created in good faith (I disagreed with its creation btw), and have perverted it into a vehicle to increase union membership. Via Human Events:

...a decade after the TSA was created following the September 11 attacks, the author of the legislation that established the massive agency grades its performance at “D-.”

Why that high of a grade? After 10 years, how many terrorist attacks have been thwarted by the TSA, exactly? And this was quite predictable:

“The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats,” said Rep. John Mica (R. -Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Like every venture of the federal government away from its constitutional duties, it becomes a cancer that metastasizes:

“It mushroomed into an army,” Mica said. “It’s gone from a couple-billion-dollar enterprise to close to $9 billion.”

Barney Frank's dream job

As for keeping the American public safe, Mica says, “They’ve failed to actually detect any threat in 10 years.”

Thus the answer to my earlier question.

“Everything they have done has been reactive. They take shoes off because of [shoe-bomber] Richard Reid, passengers are patted down because of the diaper bomber, and you can’t pack liquids because the British uncovered a plot using liquids,” Mica said.

“It’s an agency that is always one step out of step,” Mica said.

It cost $1 billion just to train workers, which now number more than 62,000, and “they actually trained more workers than they have on the job,” Mica said.

“The whole thing is a complete fiasco,” Mica said.

In a wide-ranging interview with HUMAN EVENTS just days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mica said screeners should be privatized and the agency dismantled.

Instead, the agency should number no more than 5,000, and carry out his original intent, which was to monitor terrorist threats and collect intelligence.

The fledgling agency was quickly engulfed in its first scandal in 2002 as it rushed to hire 30,000 screeners, and the $104 million awarded to the company to contract workers quickly escalated to more than $740 million.

Federal investigators tracked those cost overruns to recruiting sessions held at swank hotels and resorts in St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, Florida and the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa in Telluride, Colo.

Charges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars were made for cash withdrawals, valet parking and beverages, plus a $5.4 million salary for one executive for nine months of work.

Other over-the-top expenditures included nearly $2,000 for 20 gallons of Starbucks Coffee, $8,000 for elevator operators at a Manhattan hotel, and $1,500 to rent more than a dozen extension cords for the Colorado recruiting fair.

The agency inadvertently caused security gaps by failing for years to keep track of lost uniforms and passes that lead to restricted areas of airports.

Screeners have also been accused of committing crimes, from smuggling drugs to stealing valuables from passengers' luggage. In 2004, several screeners were arrested and charged with stealing jewelry, computers and cameras, cash, credit cards and other valuables. One of their more notable victims was actress Shirley McClain, who was robbed of jewelry and crystals.

One of the screeners confessed that he was trying to steal enough to sell the items and buy a big-screen television.

In 2006, screeners at Los Angeles and Chicago O'Hare airports failed to find more than 60% of fake explosives during checkpoint security tests.

The sometimes rudder-less agency has gone through five administrators in the past decade, and it took longer than a year for President Obama to put his one man in place. Mica’s bill also blocked collective bargaining rights for screeners, but the Obama administration managed to reverse that provision.

Your taxpayer dollars, hard at work (doing not much at all).

Previously:
No Karma Allowed: Woman Arrested For Groping TSA Agent
Good News: Man Gets on New York to L.A. Flight with Expired Boarding Pass
Doubling down on stupid: TSA stands by officers after anal probe of cancer-stricken 95-year old woman
Great News: TSA forces woman, 95, to remove adult diaper for pat down
Video of Janet Napolitano: Concentrating Terrorist Screening on Muslim Men Under 35 is Not Good Logic
Video: Woman Cries And Begs For Help After Being Molested By TSA Agent
Video Report: If you complain about TSA, you're a terrorist
Your taxpayer $$$ at work: TSA protecting the US from maniacal 6-year old girls
TSA hard at work: Florida Professor Arrested for Having a “Suspicious” Bagel on a Plane
Video: TSA photocopies credit cards and other personal documents
Video: Airline pilot disciplined by the TSA for posting YouTube video pointing out serious flaws in airport security
Video: Boobs at TSA figure a breast exception to 4th amendment to US Constitution
Pic of the day: It's come to this
Good News: TSA missing loaded guns in carry-on baggage
Good news: TSA screeners being trained by Islamic extremists
Video: Out Of Control TSA Agents Steal Pizza & Assault A Store Clerk
Video Report: TSA forces little Forrest Gump to take off his leg braces
TSA agents: We're not perverts. Orlando Woman: YES YOU ARE!
MI cancer survivor gets apology from TSA head after humiliating pat-down at Detroit Metro Airport that left him urine-soaked
TSA Chief: Resistance Is Futile
Cancer survivor tells of humiliating pat-down at Detroit Metro Airport that left him urine-soaked
Video: Woman with 2 artificial knees describes 'sexual assault' by TSA screener
Video: Ohio Woman With Baby Describes Sexual Assault By TSA Agent
Coming Soon to an Airport Near You: Prison-style strip searches