Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg continues to disappoint, time and time again.
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Many Chances To Define Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Tenure
The last few weeks have provided a few opportunities for Depart of Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, to out his stamp on its his tenure in the role. Live And Let’s Fly has been consistently optimistic about the Secretary since his appointment, hopeful for a key win.
Resort Fees
President Biden announced his intention to eliminate junk travel costs for consumers by banning resort fees in his state of the union address. This is an absolute layup for the Secretary. The only constituency that enjoys resort fees is the hotel chains and proprietors that charge them. They are innately dubious legally as FTC compliance of including the whole cost of a stay in pricing is United States law.
This is the lowest of low-hanging fruit. This issue is not controversial amongst voters and there’s no such thing as a Big Hotel lobby; Marriott and Hilton spent just $2.2MM combined in 2022 on lobbying.
The best part for the Secretary is that he probably doesn’t have enough power in his mandate to actually implement and enforce the outright elimination of resort fees, so it costs him nothing to be loud on the issue, supportive of the President, and of citizens.
He’s been essentially mum on the issue.
Train Derailment: East Palestine, Ohio
Eerily mirroring the recent Netflix film, White Noise, a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio – coincidentally near where portions of the movie were shot – spilled chemicals and toxins into the environment, just as in the film.
The Secretary was silent on the spill for a shocking ten days and has regreted his silence on the matter.
“I was taking pains to respect the role that I have, the role that I don’t have — but that should not have stopped me from weighing in about how I felt about what was happening,” – Politico
The United States transportation systems, including rail, fall under the Secretary’s purview. The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent agency.
The Secretary could have not only appeared sooner but taken a heavier hand with rail operators,
“Norfolk Southern and the other freight rail companies need to stop fighting us every time we try to do a regulation,” Buttigieg told reporters. – VOA
It’s openly naive to ask any industry to embrace reforms that no doubt force businesses to add cost, time, and difficulty to its business practice. Those sorts of reforms need to be dictated not suggested.
Buttigieg’s East Palestine trip allowed him to tour the site, the “twisted metal” and wreckage of train cars and toxic chemicals. It was an opportunity to address rail safety and the long-term approach to moving hazardous chemicals in rail cars. The industry was quick to point out that 99.9% of hazardous chemical deliveries arrive at their destination without incident and that accidents are down 55% since 2012.
FAA System Issues
About six weeks ago, the FAA’s NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) system failed. Preliminary reports suggested that it was due to a database issue by a contractor but no official report has yet been issued. More than anything else, this underscored the fragile nature of the US aerospace technology infrastructure.
“Buttigieg told Reuters in an interview that President Joe Biden’s administration plans to seek from Congress “the resources needed to accelerate these system changes” at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He said it was important to look beyond the recent outage that snarled more than 11,000 flights.
“The broader context is aging systems and growing demand. I don’t want this to be ‘whack-a-mole’ where we figured out one flavor of problem on one system… only to face another one later on.” – Reuters
Southwest Critical System Failure
At the end of 2022, Southwest Airlines faced a number of issues beginning with a weather disaster in Denver, labor strife, then computer issues that failed to communicate which assets were available and left the nation’s largest domestic carrier canceling 66% of flights during the busiest travel season on record.
Opportunity Abounds For Success, Failure
Secretary Buttigieg could have used each of these opportunities to create a lasting impact for US Consumers and the businesses that serve the transportation sector. The Secretary in no way was responsible for the Southwest meltdown but what an opportunity to push for a passenger Bill of Rights and make efforts for Congress to write similar legislation to the EU rules that put passengers in control.
There’s no question that the FAA systems issue was mostly isolated and rare, but once again, the nation turns to the leader of the DoT and the answer is to be slow and careful.
Visiting East Palestine Thursday, the Secretary could have paved the way to expedite infrastructure funds and plans for railways but instead, the news was focused on how long it took Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to visit East Palestine, Ohio. He could have used the chance to beef up security on the trains carrying potentially dangerous chemicals, but he instead turned the focus to Norfolk Southern. The National Transportation Safety Board will have to complete its investigation into the crash likely involving wheel bearings but the moment will pass to get the entire country (and congress) behind real action.
Inaction, Disappointment
The Secretary cannot enact laws, nor dish out punishment but it can make enough noise that something gets done. And there are opportunities for the head of the Department of Transportation to act. For example, enforcing disclosure of resort fees in the total price of a hotel is a law that’s on the books, and making sure that hotels and resorts adhere to it is something he could be stricter on, even if prior interpretation has allowed for the gray area we now encounter.
It took four days to respond to the Southwest issue publicly, and weeks to visit the crash site and meet with residents of East Palestine (just 43 miles from my front door.)
United Airlines is so emboldened by the complete inaction of Sec. Buttigieg that it established a mistake fare policy allowing it to not only cancel those legally sold fares as it sees fit, but punish consumers for buying tickets it mistakenly priced. This flies in the face of CFR 399.88, a protection the Department put in place to protect consumers from airlines which it later decided to no longer enforce. With a pen stroke, Buttigieg could put that rule back into place but United is so sure that he won’t that they paid lawyers to rewrite its contract of carriage “effective immediately.”
So many of these issues are solvable whether through the nation’s largest infrastructure bill since the New Deal, enforcing policies already approved, or just deciding to act when events arise. As my parents would say, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed.”
What do you think? Has Secretary Buttigieg failed to act? Should he be more responsive? Are you satisfied with his measured approach?
I think you’re being to critical of him. Let’s not forget he’s gay.
I’m sorry, but what does being gay have to do with anything? Buttigieg has a job to do and if he’s not doing it, he should be fired like the recent Architect of the Capitol, Brett Blanton. Why would you protect him just because he’s gay?
Being gay is his ONLY qualification. Just like Kamala being a black female got her the VP gig. Both checked a box. The county pays the price for their incompetence.
@David – This isn’t really fair. He was a decorated war veteran, a consultant (as many of our readers are) in the private sector, a successful mayor of a city. Chao had qualifications too but didn’t really do anything in the role.
He is NOT a decorated war veteran. He was a desk jockey, nothing more. Also, one could hardly call his tenure as mayor “successful” – he left the city as bad as he found it.
@Chi Hsuan – I never served so he’s done more than I have.
I don’t see a “reply” button on Chi Hsuan’s post—maybe fourth-order replies don’t get them?—so I’ll note here that Secretary Buttigieg was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal, which does in fact make him a decorated war veteran. Also, calling him a “desk jockey, nothing more” makes it sound like he ordered supplies, rather than being part of a unit assigned to identify and disrupt terrorist finance networks.
You’re not only a homophobe, but you are also an idiot. Anyone that can read is aware of Secretary Buttigieg’s experience, not to mention education.
I find people like yourself fascinating. Only interested in showing the world how ignorant and stupid you are….proud of it. Just like Trump….it’s a perfect fit for about 35% of America.
No he’s right.
If mayor Pete wasn’t gay he would be a nobody.
Man, you are 100 percent correct. Are you SURE it’s only 35 percent, lol. I’ve never seen another SOT take so much crap from people that don’t know anything about the job. The homophobes can’t take it!
That is so offensive for you to say that. If you don’t think he’s doing a great job, or could do things differently, totally fair. Don’t bring his sexuality into the arena as a way to bash him.
Kamala and Willie also off limits?
Lol….you homophobe. You just outed yourself to the world buddy.
Most sane and rational people are.
This blog’s political bent and obvious huge right lean is distracting.
@Brent Mayer – I feel I’ve been fair. I’d welcome any list of accomplishments the Secretary has achieved. In other posts, I indicated I was excited for his appointment, felt there could be real change and we could catch up to the protections the EU has enjoyed. Nothing, from my perspective, on any front has been delivered but he’s had so many opportunities.
Fair? I think you need to google the definition of ‘fair’….as well as ‘context’. Neither of which were used or applied above. Your ‘article’ isn’t anything more than ‘conservative’ propaganda, and embarrassingly juvenile attempt at one. Even Tucker Carlson would understand what exactly is within and not within Secretary Buttigieg’s authority (he would misrepresent it or lie about it, but he’d at least know about it). If you are going to attack a sitting US secretary, you need to at least understand how government works, and most importantly what is within their power. And if you are going to just whine (which is all you did) do it in a editorial space and not a travel blog.
You made a big miscalculation in assuming your reader won’t know or care about context and facts. Or, you are not capable of understanding them yourself. Either way, any more ‘articles’ like the one above and you will have lost yourself a long time set of eyeballs. There are too many other Travel blogs that just focus on travel, and do it well.
What a shame after all the wonderful posts by Matthew from Ukraine.
LOL. Anyone who points out a flaw from anyone in the biden admin is “right leaning.”
Besides – the writer is talking about an inept leader nicknamed “pothole pete”. What can go wrong?
Grow up…..such a cynical typical Republican response…..whine, pivot, and complain. No facts, no ideas, no work….just grievances.
You people don’t want to improve or fix anything….that would take work, and effort. All you want to do is complain….and make up childish names. You act no differently than a bunch of little children.
Hahaha that’s rich coming from a lib.
The entire democrat party platform is grievance politics based off oppression delusions.
Right lean = rational
Let’s try to keep politicians out of the blogs. The previous administration had a lot more challenges, if you really want to be critical.
@ryan – Chao had some of the same opportunities: Spirit meltdown (instead of Southwest, though for different reasons), consumer protections, and dated infrastructure. The difference for me was that I didn’t expect Sec. Chao to do anything either but at least response time for a statement was faster.
Bingo! Perhaps you could have referred back to your past expression of hope for Sec. Buttigieg, but other than that and the headline — a bit tough I thought — I found the post to be a balanced analysis of why you believe he has been ineffective.
This is a well- thought-out piece that makes several important points. But, why here, on an internet blog about flying?
@Ella – Thank you. He’s the Secretary of Transportation and two of those pieces (NOTAM, Southwest) directly relate to flying. However, as evidenced by other reports on this blog, it’s about travel generally. Matthew just completed a pair of posts about a train trip into Kyiv, I covered the Eurostar.
Secretary Buttigieg is the first prominently gay Cabinet member. Even seemingly constructive criticism is homophobia and is equivalent to war crimes. He is the absolute best Cabinet member in recent decades. His role in history is greater than the Wright Brothers, Joe Sutter, George Washington and Abe Lincoln combined.
Who would have thought an incompetent half wit diversity hire would be so inept?
That “half wit” speaks 7 languages fluently. You, however, are a paranoid nobody who whines to strangers on someone’s personal blog about issues that have literally nothing to do with you. We’re laughing at you.
LOL wow, that struck a nerve didn’t it little man?
Why do people like you think you’ve “struck a nerve” when we’re laughing at how stupid you are? Even your “little man” comment is so juvenile and lazy. What a blazing idiot.
Wow.
Resort Fees. You’re upset the Sec. isn’t being more vocal on something that isn’t within his control?
East Palestine. He admitted he was slow in responding, and has visited the site. The EPA is priority initially, and sounds like he is seeking to advance safety efforts in time.
FAA Notam. What’s the complaint? It crashed. Everyone acknowledges the system is under funded and they’re seeking resolution. What did you want the Sec to do ??
Southwest. I mean seriously..
This is the most biased article I’ve read in awhile. Did you just wake up angry and decide that you’d take it out on the Sec? Seems like the entire article backs up the fact he’s seeking to address these topics.
You seem to have some underlying bias going on that you should address.
@Al – I’d counter that you’re demonstrating your bias. What has the secretary accomplished? How has travel been better since he took over? Has it been worse? Ask honestly and openly and then determine whether this post is fair.
My point with regard to resort fees is simply that it’s the lowest possible hanging fruit, it’s like saying “bad guys are bad, right?” I acknowledged and included his statement about his regretful response, that’s as fair as it gets. With Southwest, he did nothing. There’s nothing that would force them to improve and he could institute some consumer protections when travel providers fail to deliver.
The thing is, nothing really changed that affects anyone. Inaction or not, this is the same travel experience overall in the US. I don’t wake up on a Sunday and blame the DOT for crappy travel on a blog. It’s kind of weird you did.
Yeah we’d all want consumer protections but the is the USA and nothing will get done with this congress. Travel will be it’s normal self for most of us. Weird post though. What about the family policy’s airlines are adapting to?
@Mike – I love the family policies that airlines are developing.
I really had high hopes for Sec. Buttigieg to just do… anything. If this were a pickup basketball game, it feels like Steph Curry is on your team but then, open from beyond the arc and Curry just stands there until the ball is stolen. As a candidate for president he was striking such a chord for me about just doing something, trying to find resolution for basic common problems but it’s just airballs and turnovers. From crisis comes opportunities for change, and the Secretary has had so many opportunities to be great or, frankly, just better than average. It feels like he’s performed worse but it could be that I just set expectations above “do nothing and make pronouncements” only to be let down by even a lack of pronouncements.
So I’m guessing why are we holding DOT wholly responsible when the laws need to be changed. Nothing has changed in the past couple administrations on a meaningful scale. Sure it’s okay to have hope but your entire critical piece is a perfect example of American politics and the lack of empathy for everyone. Sure Pete should do more. But shouldn’t all of government?
@Mike – It absolutely should do more. I guess, my hopes were just higher than the market would bear.
The problem is the DoT has absolutely zero authority over resort fees. DoT is not about travel, but about transportation infrastructure, which has nothing to do with hotels. Resort fees are much more the purview of the FTC (honestly even airline fees would probably fall under their jurisdiction).
The DoT’s congressional mandate almost certainly does not give Buttigieg the authority to regulate hotel fees, and given the current SCOTUS’s hostility towards executive agency actions even when Congress clearly had given them the power to regulate, Buttigieg is doing the right thing by not overstepping his Congressional authority.
Wow you’re going to unleash a torrent of hate with your uninformed and misleading post. Pete / DOT has no role on restore fees. That’s a dept of commerce thing. Pete was pretty forceful on southwest – I guess you just didn’t notice it. Good job creating a forum that will be filled with hate and malice.
Jason you nailed it here. This blog is great, but this one misses the mark by a country mile.
@Jason – Forceful how? Strong words? Did he require them to update their equipment to a minimum threshold the rest of the industry has adhered to or nah?
Pete and the dept came out pretty forcefully, had several high profile meetings with the southwest ceo, and put intense pressure on them, resulting in Southwest promising all impacted customers compensation totaling about sbout $800m of payouts. There’s are other things they’re doing as well. It was a pretty public lashing. But I guess you just didn’t notice. As for resort fees, that’s not transportation. Honestly this is just a hit piece.
@Jason – The strong wording they had with Southwest may have been why they offered the compensation they did. However, offering the one-way price and even $600 doesn’t help someone who has to buy a last minute ticket in the airport for $1500 (I had clients that had to do this.) Further, there’s no reforms to require them to prevent it from happening in the future. As for the FTC piece/resort fees, ok sure, but FTC should also cover airfare pricing discrepancies but doesn’t as cited in the piece and covered extensively here and elsewhere. If the DoT and its departments can decide when to enforce or not enforce FTC policy, who is to stop the DoT from doing the same for hotels?
This article was very informed and cited. The only people uninformed are lefties like yourself.
Pete didn’t do anything about southwest. Just said some “froceful” things after the fact.
Hotels do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Transportation even though some form of travel (transportation) is always used to reach them. Therefore it would be out of scope or mandate for Buttigieg to comment. Hotels typically fall under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for pricing practices and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for health as well as similar state agencies.
I think starting with this point as a grievance lessens the impact of your latter points.
@Bret – I hear you on the FTC matter and I believe that I address that it comes down to pricing which is FTC, however, the CFR (linked) is also a pricing matter which should fall under the FTC but doesn’t when it was enforced. I’d also argue that it may depend on whether or not it’s sold as a package that includes a DoT product. It’s hard to argue, in my eyes, that a consumer buying an airline ticket, airport transfer, rail ticket, and hotel on the same itinerary such as sold by either a travel agent or OTA should be protected from predatory pricing tactics on everything BUT the hotel. I’d reason that if it touches transportation or is even sold by an OTA/agency – it should fall under the DoT – but you’re not wrong as it’s been enforced (or ignored.)
Wow, and posting this during world pride month.
Very sus.
Every day is straight white closeted male day.
So what’s your point?
straights have to celebrate that, too? Let me out get my pencil and mark it in pen.
60% of pedophiles are lgbt.
This post should be removed.
I’m so disappointed. I thought this was a travel blog.
I read this blog daily to be far far far away from politics and the divisiveness in our country.
@BeachBoy – He’s the Secretary of Transportation.
Your posts are consistently the most tenuously related to travel, not to mention the least interesting.
What’s with the hit piece?
Why would you want politicians visiting disaster sites when they can’t do anything on their own. All they do is create a sideshow where people have to stop work to show one politician after another around the site. There are disaster workers there! Why have unnecessary politicians interfering with their work. What’s even worse are looky-loos! At least politicians can enact changes.
Are you expecting empty platitudes? Is that what’s expected of our politicians? I expect them to identify problems and solve them.
I don’t know much about FAA system issues, but generally, if a complicated, important system like that isn’t broken, don’t fix it. All I heard about that system is that it’s old. Aren’t 747s still using floppy disks? Having said that, it would be expensive to upgrade and there are bound to glitches on startup. Why would any politician want to willingly manage that upgrade? They would be in between a rock and a hard place.
From what I have read about East Palestine incident, investigators don’t know the root cause of the accident. Is this a one-off accident? Do you want our politicians to react to every one-off accident without knowing the root cause? If so, we should halt all train traffic until the cause is determined and fixed. (That would solve everything, right?). There would be a stop sign or signal light at every intersection. Airports will need to re-arrange runways to remove intersections. Maybe rules that does not allow standing in buses. Until the cause is identified, I rather not jump to conclusions. In this case, town officials, state representatives, governor, NTSB investigators, and who knows who else already made a visit.
To answer the bottom line question, a measured approach (after everything has stabilized) is best. We don’t need politicians making every disaster site into a circus.
@Paul L – I don’t mind a measured approach, and I don’t mind allowing a little bit of the dust to clear before leaping to conclusions or talking points – in fact, we need more of that. But when there is something said, there’s little to nothing done. His admonishmnet of Southwest amounted to nothing more than “we’re going to have a stern conversation if this continues” and that doesn’t lead to action on anyone’s part. The same thing happened after East Palestine, blaming the industry for fighting reforms. You’re the leader of the DoT, make reforms and make them deal with it.
He can tweak the rules, but he can’t make real changes without an act of Congress. Even then, rule changes take months of preparation, public comment, and tweaking. Specifically for Southwest, if they want to have an antiquated reservation system, it’s on them.
Number of derailments Elaine Chao visited: zero.
She was a diversity hire too.
I eagerly await finding your articles criticizing her for the above issues most of which existed during her tenure as well. Alas there are none.
But hey you only get one chance a week to own the libs!
There weren’t massive chemical spills under her watch either
Libs own themselves. As we see by putting a diversity hire as the head of the dot
Misleading title. Poor information and conclusions.
@Joseph M – Misleading title? Has the secretary responded quickly or with any discernible action? I had high hopes for him in the role, but I can’t point to a single one of his accomplishments despite a glut of opportunity, can you?
Leaving this blog and never will return. What an awful dialogue and discourse here. Petty, tribal politics. Now wonder the United States has turned itself into a violent, racist, money worshipping land, which I happily left years ago by trading in my citizenship for Australia.
I know this is a travel blog, but it’s not an airport. No need to announce your departure
No need to announce your arrival either. Or for that matter, where your baggage can be claimed. Even if you have much of it.
Ooohhh, so original, Jan. Let me go write that one down.
Ouch
@LadyOlives: Good riddance!!! You won’t be missed.
Pretty bold of you to criticize a gay man who is also an accomplished intellectual and a genius not seen since the likes of Tesla. Now Aaron is gonna come after you for your hate-filled, bigot, racist, white supremacist, homphobia, and Billy Boob will mumble about something something orange man whataboutism.
On a more serious note is Buttigieg even in charge of the hotel resort fees? Has nothing to do with transportation, if I’m being fair.
Hey, everyone. You’re missing Kyle’s basic point: If we want to address these transportation issues then we need bigger government, more regulation, and stronger government enforcement to address the self-created weaknesses and judgments of private sector businesses and government operations that contract out their computer programing to private sector contractors.
Imagine if he was President like he wanted. It might be worse than Biden.
Kamala Buttigieg 2024
Buttigeg sucks big time, and as a LGBTQ+ Dem I’ve seen him style over substance long ago.
but he still pales comparing to EPA head determined to destroy EPA and rob Ritz Carlton rooms for Asprey garbage, Department of Education head determined to destroy public school, heart surgeon as HUD head, Treasure Secretary sold US to Mr. Chainsaw, and on and on and on.
I’ll give him a slight pass.
Funny and not funny to see Petey standing next to white workers in Ohio when just a few days before saying too many whites in industry
How can I remove this blog from my list of interesting blogs on boardingarea? I dont want politics in my feed.
winter over? snowflakes melting
Good luck. Most boarding area bloggers are happy to deal with the hate as long as it delivers the clicks.
@Jason – Definitely by clicking the link, reading the article, and then posting a comment.
He ran for president and will probably try to run again so he needs to make sure to cozy up to big business so they will back him next time. Hence the inaction. And let’s not forget he’s a former McKinsey consultant.
Republican comments on Pete being a former McKinsey consultant
“See, he is out of touch with the American people.”
Republican comment on any future GOP candidate who was once a McKinsey consultant.
“This display’s a unique understanding of American business and shows an incredible intellect as to the importance and need for our support of a healthy corporate environment in this country.”
@Chris – I thought the same which is why I included Marriott/Hilton’s lobbying finances in my post, but he took a (thin) shot at Norfolk Southern who spent $1.8MM compared to the hotels combined $2.4MM. That said, President Biden and fmr President Trump raised about $1.8bn combined so it’s kind of a drop in the bucket.
Really good post. 100% agreed. Ignore the haters 🙂
If not for his sexual orientation, he would still be a nobody in middle of nowhere in Indiana.
Hardly. But yet here you are, posting constant comments on a little known travel blog, getting a hard on for being “controversial,” whining about “nobodies.” The irony is totally lost on you.
Multiple de-railments involving passengers during the Trump’s rule and not once did Elaine Chao Secretary of transportation show up at any of them ever. You are way out of line here!
@Gene – She did nothing! The only difference is that I had no hopes of her accomplishing anything at all, Sec Buttigieg I thought could bring some real change.
Hi Kyle, if I may ask, I was wondering if there was a particular reason why you had greater expectations for Secretary Buttigieg versus his predecessors.
@Jake K – Fair question, I guess I found that he seemed to present a more concerted effort to solve problems and didn’t feel like a traditional appointee. Many in the role seem to be there for political favors, he seemed to be a politician that might want to make things better, not that he doesn’t desire those things but doesn’t seem to accomplish them.
Thank you, Kyle. I understand what you mean.
How many of them caused massive chemical spills?
Pothole Pete is a diversity hire and it shows.
Ill-informed dribble from a Trumpanzee. Just because Tucker Carlson said so doesn’t make it true, Kyle. Matthew needs to dump you like 3-day old fish.
Moreover, you criticize the Secretary over things for which he has neither control nor jurisdiction. The NTSB is an independent agency, not controlled by the Secretary of Transportation.
Perhaps OAN needs a new blogger. You’d fit in perfectly with those mental midgets from the extra-chromosome right wing.
@Neal – Can you point to a single accomplishment or positive impact from the Secretary’s tenure? I will be happy to follow up with the appropriate commentary on his successes. Look through the comments, no one has listed one yet. Not one.
Well, we could start with his role in passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That’s a pretty big accomplishment. But you really don’t want to hear about accomplishments. Moreover, many of the administration’s proposals and solutions were killed by Moscow Mitch in the Senate and the inane 60-vote rule. And now, Kevin “I like to kiss Trump’s ass” McCarthy will continue to serve as a roadblock as well. Republiclowns like you don’t care about facts. Indeed, you supported a guy who made Pinocchio look like an altar boy, literally lying tens of thousands of times during his unfortunate tenure in office.
He’s right and your ignorance is showing.
You’re so partisan that it clouds your reality.
Kyle — you’re always seem so angry and your voice has this unpleasant right-wing edge to it. It is not becoming. Why or how Matthew puts up with it is beyond me!
He just telling the truth.
BIGGER GOVERNMENT Great Just what we need,, We have it already and IT DOES NOT WORK… … Pete is suggesting ,Of Course, More Unions..that will help NOT!! It does not seem to do much.. and will probably need another 6 month paternity leave soon…
Pothole Pete is another one of the woke Biden administration’s failed diversity hires like JJP and the suitcase thief. He could not make the buses run on time in South Bend, Indiana.
Lower your expectations.
New conservative mantra: “If we don’t understand, support, or agree with something, we’ll just refer to it as ‘woke.'”
So juvenile and lazy.
What to ignore reality. It’s what woke lefties love to do. Only way their horrible ideology can be justified.
“Woke” is an ideology now?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
God, you people are so pathetic.
Does Matthew approve these posts? I am surprised to see this on his blog. This post is very dimensional, one sided and doesn’t tell an accurate picture. Why would the secretary waste his time advocating for something in which his department has no jurisdiction?
@Shawn – Does he have jurisdiction over the railroads, the airlines, and transportation infrastructure? You say it’s one-dimensional, I haven’t seen a single comment that’s said anything that he’s accomplished. As mentioned in the post, in previous posts, and in the comments on this very blog, I liked Sec Buttigieg as a candidate and had high hopes for him. The concept that I shouldn’t have had any expectations of him accomplishing anything and therefore I am in some way bias is disappointing. Biden has accomplishments, I love what he’s doing about student loan debt, even Trump issued an executive order for 12-weeks paid maternity/paternity leave for federal employees – that’s pretty uniformly well received. Buttigieg has not even performed to the level of his inept predecessors, by delaying responses if issuing them at all. If you’re not going to do anything you could at least say something but even that’s a struggle.
Please, I welcome any accomplishments of his I might have overlooked. Without someone making a substantive argument for something he’s done in the role, maybe I’m not the one that’s one-sided.
He helped push through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – meeting with lawmakers, lobbyists, etc. to elaborate on the need for the investment.
This was my exact thought–Kyle’s inadvertent call for greater federal oversight and power against an out of control provate sector would be missed by the nastier conservatives knee-jerking there way through an ironic victory dance.
@Phil – I think there are minimum service levels that a government should enforce. We allow this for safety when cars are built, reporting structures, etc. I think that demanding carriers to meet a minimum competency for technology when not doing so has the potential to cripple commerce and cost consumers hundreds of millions if not billions makes it a reasonable governmental intervention. There’s a massive distance between bringing back full regulation and just requiring them to modernize from at least the 1990s onward.
I am so relieved it is Sunday. When you post Kyle, I know I don’t have to read your angry “opinions”. Hope your fan club is happy today….
Ha. Trump’s deregulators cause the mess and you don’t like how it’s being cleaned up? Oh, well….
The previous administration set the standard that if you vote for the other side you get nothing from the feds during a disaster… see Puerto Rico and California wildfires. Knowing this the people of Ohio still voted for Trump. Better luck next time
This is the spin you lefties are using for bidens failures. “It’s trumps fault” was it “Trumps fault” that pothole pete didn’t even acknowledge this rail accident for over a week?
This is all democrat failures as is everything.
this is a travel blog i thought, not a place for political commentary. what did the previous transportation secretary ever do?
@cp – Nothing, absolutely nothing, if anything, she impaired the office. But I had no hopes for change under her, Secretary Buttigieg was different and I liked him on the campaign trail – I thought he would bring action. The DoT has a huge role in this hobby and how we all live our lives, but I guess the prior Administrator didn’t have as many opportunities in close succession to impress or disappoint.
….
Kyle you need to delete this from your post as it is not accurate – the EPA is a separate stand alone federal agency – the EPA has a Senate-confirmed administrator appointed by the President. EPA is not within the Interior Department.
@Brandon – I’ve updated, however, this page from the Dept. of the Interior with regard to the EPA is confusing: https://www.doi.gov/recovery/about-us/primary-agencies/EPA
I don’t care about his sexual orientation. What I do care about is his incompetence and lack of accountability by the administration for his incompetence. I lost all respect for him when he was pretending to ride his bike to work.
i am a leftist liberal. the biden admin has nominated all incompetent people to run his adminsitration. be it the VP who doesn’t care about our border and the endless lawless illegal immigration or the transportation secretary who has zero experience about transportation and he was chosen only because of being a homosexual. Then there is that government transgender woman official who always steals people’s luggage from airports.
very bad!
Lol… yea and I’m a hardcore conservative fascist, but I think this administration is doing a great job at everything… biden 2024!
No “leftiat liberal” refers to aomeone as a”homosexual.”
Nice try, clown.
Think this is a completely fair take (albeit a clickbait title). At the end of the day, making changes starts with Congress passing laws, and that ain’t happening. I don’t blame the accidents or Southwest’s incompetence on Buttigieg, but I’d love if he tore them apart in a speech (again, this does nothing but make me feel better). If you want real change, push your Senators and Representatives to support Markey and Blumenthal’s passenger bill. And to congress, get out of your primitive brain mindset and work together for once. Biden passing a law benefitting travelers isn’t bad for Republicans.
That’s the thing.. they don’t want to give him anything positive he can use in his 2024 campaign, so nothing will get passed, and everyone gets punished
This is America. It is a total mess. Write an opinion piece – there is no news or real analysis in it – and those with a different opinion will literally seek to destroy the other side. And the author is happy to play along and feed the fire. More clicks for him. The resort fee argument is weak. Not really DOT domain. All the rest is fair game but hardly fixable through a few sound bites. Let’s see if any rule changes are implemented in coming months. Pete seems Obama-lite to me. Clearly talented. Does represent a step forward for society. And kinda disappointing in terms of making the wheels of government work better. Not a zero but surprisingly unremarkable. Projects sense of not wanting to get his hands dirty. Not a natural fit for head of DOT.
For the avoidance of doubt, we have comment policies that are some of the most generous in the blogosphere. We welcome a healthy debate but abusers to this policy are subject to the terms of our comment policy rules.
Got deleted also
Mathew is no Trumper. Mathew is a Conservative
Kyle I generally enjoy your posts. I thought the earlier discussion was great. After attempting to smooth things over, please understand we are all different. And this is something I pray about every day, that I will understand others and hope they understand me. God bless
Absolutely. All opinions are welcome, even those that disagree so long as they don’t violate policy. Thank you Maryland, I appreciate it.
Glad to hear that. May we all rest easy
“Violates Policy” for Kyle is that it is contrary to his view point, and he happens to not like the person. Again, Kyle, why not put up my comment from this morning written with restraint and as a rebuttal? Why not allow others to decide if I violated this conveninant policy you hide behind? Are you afraid?
Rest easy. We are all different. Give him time too
I rest very easy. And will. I don’t need to hide behind a “rule” that he neither created or is remotely related to my post this morning. He is just upset that I called him out two years ago for lying about status he claimed he had and was using as an experience based post. I presented the links to show he was lying and he has targeted me since. Kyle has trouble with the truth. When truth is inconvenient for him.
@Stuart. Okay. I understand more. But please, Try a little forgiveness. And Kyle too. Life is too darn short these days. And the big plus is you remain a great point/ counterpoint interest and that’s what floats this boar we all enjoy
You may be right; (I see no deletions). But boy howdy does your point ever apply to the travel blogger YMMV.
Hello Stuart, I do recall reading your comment earlier today – it was a great writeup about Secretary Buttigieg’s contributions, especially his behind-the-scenes role in pushing through the infrastructure bill. What happened to it?
Oh, upon reading this thread more careful, I understand that it was removed. I can’t recall if there was anything objectionable in your comment – perhaps you could re-post a version that wouldn’t be removed?
Simply, Kyle doesn’t like me. He deletes all my comments routinely. Some I will give him justification for in the past as I got personal, primarily because I caught him in lies two years ago and called him out on it with links showing that he was lying (deleted of course). Since then I have a real distrust for anything he writes. He lies for his own gain or ego, whatever that may be.
Repost from this morning and deleted by Kyle…
It’s so laughable how Kyle is completely gullible to all GOP talking points that loves loves loves to attack Pete B at every step. Ever wonder why? What Transportation Secretary before was under such scrutiny and cherry picking of policies and perceived inaction? What did Chao accomplish prior? Other than blocking most spending programs that involved public safety and transportation improvements, as well as promoting cleaner energy. Yet still, few ever talked about her, until of course she resigned given her boss was a traitor to the nation and constitution. I will give her credit for good judgement on this issue.
As far as Pete…like any politician or public servant there will be mistakes and successes. Of course, you only choose to point out those you call, “mistakes.” Which, in fact, are either a nothing burger or complete spin so as to find ANYTHING to criticize him for. I’m laughing at how scared the GOP is of him. Why are you all so scared?
1. You never pointed out how crucial he was behind the scenes in lobbying moderate Republicans to get the infrastructure bill passed. Feel free to read the articles of how he was praised on both sides for his ability to work Washington circles at a time when it’s not an easy task. He was a major cog in the wheel of this getting done. Even more so, his humility and loyalty to Biden was at the forefront of his not tooting his own horn after…just Biden’s
2. As mentioned above, why in the world would you attach hotel fees to Pete? It’s not even remotely in his area of regulations. I’m shaking my head at this.
3. Pete has been working behind the scenes with Biden continuously on the Airline issue. Of course he is promoting Biden’s tough stance and recent words. As any good member of the team he is helping with the messaging and allowing the leader, for whom it will be perceived as more forceful, take command at the helm of official statements to the public.
4. Biden and Pete are not dumb. They know there is only so much regulation they can get through. The EU rules will never happen here. As such they are using the next best tactic, calling the airlines out in major public venues, like the state of the union address. And it’s working. The new seating policies for families is a perfect example. They don’t need to try and develop new regulations that create political infighting, they just need to publicly shame the airlines and force them to enact reforms.
5. What in the world has Pete done poorly with the rail derailment? What did any Transportation Secretary do before that could have prevented this? I don’t recall Chao, or anyone, making this their life’s work. It’s an issue that is probably more related to poor funding so as to have better oversight on rail safety because, umm, Republicans scream at any spending involving safety for the public. Well, that is, other than making sure 16 year olds can play with automatic weapons, if you call that safety. Interestingly, it’s been shown that the first few days after the train derailment Pete is accused for “remaining quiet on it.” Yes, he was and perhaps that was a mistake. However, it’s been noted that in not one of the interviews he did, including on conservative platforms, was he ever asked about it. In fact, he has, though I don’t know why he bothered, apologized for not being more vocal about it from the start. Kudos to him for acknowledging and moving forward.
6. Software issues and ATC areas have been an issue for YEARS! How did Pete create this? And how do you expect him to overnight fix what has been a problem for decades? The system is antiquated and, yet again, it seems no one wants to spend the money to lead the world in a state of the art rebuild that could bring about even greater safety. That does not mean he is not trying, as far as I can see. But, again, he can’t just snap his fingers and make it pretty. What did Chao do about it before? Nothing, For the same reason. No one seems to want to spend the money. Of course, my favorite was Tucker calling a routine go around of a plane in Houston (something we all experience ourselves every few months) as a clear sign of failure on the part of Pete. So laughable and indicative of how scared they all are him.
7. If anything, Pete takes the hits for Biden as being the most vocal and public facing Transportation Secretary we have had since Mineta. I doubt most GOP hacks can even tell you who the other Transportation Secretary’s were before Pete. Other than maybe Chao, and only because of her dramatic resignation due to Trump’s insanity. Pete is willing to take the interviews, do talk shows, even on FOX, and take the criticism, defend Biden, and talk about these things openly. I can’t recall anyone as dedicated and willing to put himself out there. In fact, he could easily hide in his office (as many did before) and just serve his role quietly.
Are there areas that Pete could potentially improve on? Sure. But your “stroke of the pen” comment makes me believe that you really have no clue how things work in DC. There are many pressures from even inside his own party to not overstep and over regulate so as to set up even more bloody battles than we already have. As such, I think the messaging approach is the right one. Have Biden call them out publicly, shame them, and embarrass them into reforms. It’s working. Southwest has agreed to pay consumers and improve. Families will get free seating together. Airlines are being more cautious about scheduling now. And more to come.
Of course, circling back to the part no one who likes to attack Pete seems to remember. That is that he was a major part of the first infrastructure package in years getting passed and being implemented.
Republicans don’t want politicians that quietly make things better, they want politicians that loudly make them feel good but quietly do nothing or make things worse
Thank you for re-posting. You offer some very strong (and nuanced, in the case of using state-of-the-union address to shame airlines into action on family seating policies) counterpoints, and I enjoyed reading it again – and I agree with them. I enjoy Kyle’s blog posts as well, and usually learn something new.
(no reply option in your deleted/reposted explanation of what Pete has done)
I agree that the vast majority of your post is informative and does not violate any policy. The only part would be the first sentence which looks to be an attack on Kyle. BUT – it would have been very easy for Kyle to moderate by just deleting the first sentence and leaving the rest which I think should have been done instead of deleting the whole thing.
Does the previous Secretary of Transportation have a better record? Who is the last SoT that did everything right?
All of you weenies who are p/o’d about this are just mad because you don’t have the balls to go get that giant picture of Lenin you really want hanging on your wall. Matt, a married man with a family has more cojones than any of you. Maybe you should hop over to Cuba and get you some Che Guevara artwork?
BTW, no, Pete does not qualify as an actual war vet. Sorry, no. I will not admit him to my VFW post even though he has that commendation.
I doubt he, or anyone, is looking to join your vfw post
@Willy. I laugh because I had been gifted some Russian realism pieces. Whilst Russian realism literature is my favorite, the lacquer ware has always scared me. Each to our own. And for the record I am a democrat. Nothing political, the depictions make me cringe
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Willy, your comment about Cuba is shrill and laughable. Get bavk to us when you have ridded your home of everything nade in China. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Just more conservative hypocrisy.
The sad result of making a cabinet appointment based on identity politics -in this case a sop to the gay community- rather than the ability and qualifications to do the job. Does any reasonable person truly think the mayor of a small Indiana town is prepared to lead the nation’s transportation department?
There are a great many cabinet members who have done no better than Pete, but the thing that makes Pete stand out is his utter lack of accomplishment in life and his elevation on pure vapor and moxie, as well as his complete lack of self-awareness of these facts. Mayor Pete is a demonstration of the very worst of the US political system: a guy of no better than average intelligence and lower than average accomplishments that left the only private sector job in which he was ever benchmarked after <2 years and failed up in a succession of public sector jobs in which he didn't do anything for anybody other than himself and a small group of political patrons. Pete's real skill is the same as possessed by Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian in somehow capturing the fancy of the public and becoming famous for having become famous. Fortunately for Pete, substantive success has never been a prerequisite for political service – as demonstrated by almost every President of the USA in my lifetime – and Pete will be a viable candidate for President or Senate or some other political position where competence is besides the point. Nothing is demanded of Pete to succeed in his position, and he will leave this position smelling like a rose, with chaos in his wake . . . not too dissimilar than the guy who appointed him.
Imagine Pete as a mid-level bureaucrat in Singapore or Switzerland . . . and you'll have to imagine because something like that would never happen in a place where competence is critical.
“The last few weeks have provided a few opportunities for Depart of Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, to out his stamp on its his tenure in the role. Live And Let’s Fly has been consistently optimistic about the Secretary since his appointment, hopeful for a key win.”
– “to out his stamp…” do you mean “put” instead of “out”. Because he is already “out”. What possible reason (homophobia) would you use “out” in this context?
– “on its his tenure in the role” – does he prefer to be called “its’ instead of “his”. What possible reason would you use “its” in this context?
You can always tell how much truth you’re telling by the response from the angry left.
Their entire ideology is based on emotions and “gut feeling” over logic and reason.
No on needs to own the libs. They do that well on their own.
The greatest mistake the GOP is making is to think we are all so far left, just because we disagree. In fact, most of us, and I see many here in LALF, are moderates who want reason, pragmatic thinking, and solutions. Other than geography, and the electorate college (which I do support), the reality is that the majority of Americans are sick and tired of this. I respect your conservative values to hold to certain standards that this country was built on, but there is also a time to evolve and realize that what this country was built on is much more than an idealized vision of guns and god. We grow as a people. Or we kill each other otherwise.
It’s just plain wrong to say Sec. Buttigieg hasn’t done anything:
-The new LGA is world class
-The expansion of Brightline to Orlando later this year is something to be very excited about.
-The expansion of the Silver Line to IAD is remarkable, and long overdue.
-Upscale bus travel (Red Coach, Vonlane, etc) has given the public some great new options to compete with flying.
-MCO’s terminal C adds capacity, and a real international terminal to that airport that really needed it.
-Over the last two years we’ve seen substantial investment not just in MCO and LGA, but in TPA, AUS, ORD, MCI, SEA, PDX, DCA (the list goes on).
I have never seen the public care so much about a transportation secretary. If Buttigieg is bad, I would challenge someone to name who they might consider to be a model transportation secretary. Additionally, I’ll close by stating that expecting something like EU261 to show up in the USA overnight means you fundamentally don’t understand how our government works.
Half of those things are private and everything on that was started long before he even was in office.
Stop making excuses for him.
I’ll be praying for you and your family, Kyle. So sad that no one could say that in 149 comments prior. No surprise though—evil exists.