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To the editor:
Hypocritical politicians are so commonplace that we can become inured to them. Recent days had two instances — nationally and locally — so shameful that they need recounting.
President Trump blamed the fatal aircraft collision on his predecessors’ policies, referring to a “diversity and inclusion hiring initiative” without any evidence. Actually, a program recruiting Federal Aviation Administration employees with targeted disabilities began during his Administration in 2019.
The New York Times found that “more than 90 percent of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the Federal Aviation Administration’s recommended staffing levels.”
One day after the collision, air traffic controllers were sent emails basically urging them to quit their jobs and take buyouts.
Days earlier, a purge of the most experienced employees responsible for airline safety began with this resignation program, offered to two million federal workers, including first responders at the crash site.
Locally, false virtue was shown by two members of the City Council — Speaker Adrienne Adams and Justin Brannon, the chair of the Finance Committee. Both have refused to endorse legislation preserving retiree health benefits.
Ironically, they found their voices in a joint statement to criticize a federal freeze on earmarked funding “for vital programs that has disrupted Medicaid … is irresponsible and creating chaos…” and shows “abusive overreach” that endangers “the health and safety of all New Yorkers.”
It is astonishing that they can’t muster anger when retirees are placed in the same position. Marianne Pizzitola, the president of the New York City Association of Public Service Retirees, called this “fake outrage” that City Council members “cannot say that there’s outrage because the federal government was going to rescind federal funding for public health care from Medicaid, but yet they don’t have the same anger that the Mayor for the last four years has been doing the same damn thing.”
Harry Weiner
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