A Nice Gesture, and a Little Remorse on the Part of Rep. John Mica, Republican Chairman of the House Transportation Committee

And Some Commendation is Due Him

The Dismal Political Economist has reported several times on the dismal performance of the Chairman of the House of Representative Transportation Committee, Mr. John Mica (R, Fl).  Mr. Mica pushed through a bill authorizing funding of the FAA, and it required some modest cuts in airport subsidies and  totally unrelated to the FAA operations, a change in rules for labor organizing in the transportation industry.

The Senate Democrats, in a rare display of principle, refused to accept the House version of the bill. Mr. Mica would not discuss the issue.  The result, non-essential operations of the FAA shut down, the government lost more revenue in one half day then would have been saved by the House bill, and private construction workers were thrown out of work. 

Dana Milbank

Opinion Writer

  

A report by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank describes how Mr. Mica has (non-sarcasm alert) graciously moved to correct the situation.

“I’ve had a brutal week, getting beat up by everybody,” Mica told me,  . . .“I didn’t know it would cause this much consternation,” Mica said. “Now I’ve just got to get the broom and the shovel and clean up the mess.” Switching metaphors, he said he wanted “to unclog the toilet, but it backed up. So I don’t know what to do, what to say.”

And Mr. Mica went on

He said he would introduce legislation Friday to pay FAA workers for their furlough days. “We just want to cheer all those workers who have been left out on a limb by this,” he explained.

So in the end it may be that the fiasco will result in funding for the FAA getting on a sound basis, and for Mr. Mica things may have changed.

Mr. Mica - Doing the Right Thing

People don’t have to get so personal,” he said with a sigh. “A lot of people hate me now and think I’m the worst thing in the world for what I did.”



Well Mr. Mica, The Dismal Political Economist doesn’t hate you, never did and now he is happy to salute you for taking the effort to correct things, which in the “we never do anything wrong” world of government officials is unique and unusual.

And in an ever greater gesture, The Dismal Political Economist will refrain from making a comment on your metaphor about “unclogging the toilet”.  You have no idea how hard that will be for him.