The GOP's New Idea

You can pore through Matt Bai's underwhelming piece in the NYT magazine about Newt Gingrich and find little you didn't already know (apart from the unsettling fact that Gingrich is about to convert to Catholicism). But we did get one new idea from the GOP. Are you sitting down?

“One of the projects I’m going to launch we don’t have a name for it yet is an air-traffic modernization project... You can do a space-based air-traffic-control system with half the current number of air-traffic controllers, increase the amount of air traffic in the northeast by 40 percent, allow point-to-point flights without the controllers having to have highways in the sky, and reduce the amount of aviation fuel by 10 percent. So it’s better for the environment, better for the economy. You have far fewer delays in New York, and by the way, you cut the number of unionized air-traffic controllers by 7,000. Our thematic is going to be you’re going to love this that if you have an air-traffic delay that’s not caused by weather, take the extra time at the airport and call your two senators and your congressman and demand they pass the modernization act."

Why would I be even more terrified to get on a plane after that "reform"?