Poll Finds Obama and GOP Equally to Blame for Airport Delays
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Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — As for who was responsible for the flight delays at airports last week due to the furloughing of air traffic controllers, the U.S. public says there’s enough blame to go around.
A Pew Research Center survey finds that 32 percent of respondents puts the responsibility of the sequester-related furloughs squarely on President Obama’s shoulders, while 34 percent said that the onus should fall on congressional Republicans.
The White House and GOP lawmakers claimed the other was at fault.
Republicans maintained that the furloughs of Federal Aviation Administration employees was unnecessary and the administration was exploiting the daily lay-offs without pay to score political points.
Meanwhile, the FAA said its hands were tied and the sequester cuts meant having to furlough its 47,000 employees. All this became a moot point after Congress last week voted to shift around funds so that airports would remain fully staffed at least through Sept. 30.
Just the same, the Pew poll suggests that the president does not have the wide support he once enjoyed in his fights over economic policy with the GOP. When the “fiscal-cliff” tax debate raged toward the end of 2012, more Americans supported Obama over Republicans on the issue by a two-to-one margin.
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