comment: >
  
  
  The letter revolves around states wanting the right to regulate their own interest in airlines,
  
  Yes, because the Federal oversight wasn't enough -- fines weren't happening, refunds weren't happening, and the states didn't have the power to do it. They wanted it because the Feds weren't doing it.
  If this was something you followed, you'd be aware the FAA was warned they weren't properly overseeing Southwest and others by the Office of Special Counsel. These reports were out in July. None of this is a secret, it's not something someone can defend and pointing to some fines (without saying when they were actually levied) is darkly comic.
  
  I’m just gonna pretend that none of the homophobic undertones of this argument exist, 
  
  This is lame and low. My comment stands by itself, and has nothing to do with someone's sexuality -- using that as a bludgeon to try to chill conversation is a really gross tactic DeathByTacos. Nobody cares about his sexuality in this context except you, and I can't help but think you're using this tactic to avoid my point about how some jobs can't have you disappearing for months. e.g., the President. The VP. Secretary of Defense. Secretary of Transportation, etc.
  There are certain jobs that when you take them are going to require you to actually be in them. You're welcome to disagree with that, but this is a gross tactic and the kind of thing someone does when they aren't confident in their arguments.
  
  there hasn’t been a SINGLE documented instance of his availability causing an issue in processing under the DoT, in fact there are multiple references from both department leads and members of Congress where he took meetings at the hospital his children were under intensive care in. I would love to see something backing up this claim about ppl being told they didn’t have authority to address issues
  
  Oh my, you're very sure you're correct here by how much you typed and frankly I don't blame you, because yes there is generally a formal delegation process that wasn't really in play here. Department regulations normally assign authority to the Deputy Secretary for some actions, but not all unless you go through the formal process because they're acting. Instead he kept his, even though he didn't always use it.
  This lead to fiascos -- a good example (you can read the redacted emails here) is one where lawyers spent a weekend trying to figure out who had the ability to figure out who actually had the authority around a very big loan program. They finally had to do it themselves to make the mandated Congressional reports by law, etc. While he claimed he was taking calls while on leave, we know at least one Senator tried to contact him about a project during the height of the shipping crisis and was told he was on paternity leave.
  All this took place while negotiations were happening in Congress for the infrastructure bill, which was largely about DOT.
  
  This is quite the false equivalency. The DoT has no influence over what demands the Unions have, that independence is the whole thing that makes unions work. 
  
  No more a false equivalency than Congress having Cadillac health plans for themselves while voting differently for the american public. Of course the DOT doesn't have influence over the demands of the unions, how is that an argument?
  And in this case, he went on about the importance of paid leave -- and in also in this case the unions wanted paid sick leave. Which they still don't have. When asked about it, he would change the subject to how Americans don't have to worry about not getting their gas since the workers were told a strike would be illegal.
context: If he makes flying better people will love him - except jealous gqp cult members who will want to ban air travel to piss off the libs. >
  
  All Pete has to say is, "Here is my $20B infrascture plan to upgrade the technology at all US airports. All it needs is the Repugs approval."
  Repugs response: " Derrrr... Stoves...  Ban all books... Forced births are what our Founding Fathers wanted... Derrrr..." >
  
  He’s been doing a fantastic job with messaging lately, so I’m hoping he does or says something similar to this. That’s really all the Democratic Party has to do at this point for the next two years to win the media messaging game. Simply say, “This is what we have tried to do and the GOP said no,” and then they can just go highlight all the bullshit they’re doing instead of what they claimed they were going to do during the mid-terms. >
  
  That's assuming the democrats will ever be willing to play hardball with the repugs. Spoiler alert, they won't be. Democrats are forever chasing those mythical independent and undecide voters. So their messaging is always soft. Meanwhile the rest of our democracy suffers because the dems won't rock the boat. >
  
  He'll talk his way out of it. That's a compliment too because as Fox News has routinely found out, the man can explain circles around them, and I think they secretly like it considering they keep having him on just so he can own them every time. >
  
  I legitimately enjoy watching him on Fox. It's like rope a dope with their dumb asses. >
  
  It’s weird too because he has plenty of qualities they would like, but they can never admit it because he’s A DEMOCRAT. >
  
  ... and gay. Gotta attack him because of that too. How dare he have a husband and children! >
  
  I was almost going to mention that too. Seems Fox would be ok with that too…if he wasn’t a Democrat, lol. They’re always looking for new props >
  
  Yeah they were trying to get him on spending money to fly Chastain with him. He responded with the list of all prior people who Tom their spouses, as expected and customary, with them. He then asks why he's any different. They sat looking stupidly at him because they didn't expect him to have a response. >
  
  Shows how much Rs see Buttigieg as a threat more than anything. >
  
  A gay democrat succeeding in a powerful position? I think they’d rather get kicked in the nuts >
  
  Succeeding? When?
  More like cashing in on political favor while he bides time to run in '24. Pete has been a disaster at transportation secretary
  Obligatory I'm not a republican and I'm allowed to criticize democrats and not be called names for it >
  
  For real Pete has been groomed for years to run but he is bad at everything he does. He was a disaster as a mayor and even more useless as transportation secretary, people told him for months that the current issues would happen and he just did nothing.
  Everyone pounding off to how great he is are classic neo lib center right "democrats". He is exactly the opposite of what we need he is status quo. >
  
  How exactly has he been a useless transportation secretary?  He at the very least says all the right things when I've heard him being interviewed which seems like its often because the media loves talking to him. >
  
  He's been hit with crisis after crisis and had an opportunity to really impact change on a lot of core infrastructure, but instead has merely lofted .00XX% fines as "penalty" and then just allows business as usual. It's really messed up how many democrats I see who really want change and then cheer on corporate democrats and neo liberals like Pete and Biden. 
  It's so obvious that he got that position because he stepped down and endorsed Biden in the primary, and he's been a politics-first, prepare for '24 transportation secretary from the second he was nominated >
  
  Do you really think punishing airlines is the main duty of a Transportation Secretary? Those investigations take years and they're still working through the complaints from 2020 because that part of the FAA is understaffed for the demands. The still issued the largest fines ever both in 2021 and 2022 and I'm sure there's more to come.
  Crisis management is part of the job and he has done fine with it. Just look how quickly SWA agreed that it was their fault and that they'll not only pay refunds but compensations for hotels and more and voluntarily additional vouchers.
  But the real big deal is the negotiation and implementation of the infrastructure law with a big shift to active transportation, public transit and trains in addition to repairing bridges and modernizing ports and airports. Add to that new rules for customer protection for airline passengers including a bill of rights for passengers with disabilities, a road safety strategy, the reconnecting communities program, climate resilience programs, a nationa EV charger network, new rights and more autonomy for tribes and working with HUD on public transit centered urban development. >
  
  The people who belittle him for having only experience as a small city mayor are the same people who proudly voted for Sarah Palin. >
  
  Or Donald Trump. It’s not like he was a governor or member of Congress before being elected. >
  
  Republicans always act like no experience is a positive when they do it and a negative when the democrats do it. 
  Well, actually they do that with everything. >
  
  I give it a couple election cycles max before they run a gay “Christian” as the front runner for the republican nomination. >
  
  George Santos (or whatever he goes by today)?? >
  
  He is a target for Republicans.  He is their next boogy-man for their sheeple. >
  
  I'm impressed with the job Buttigieg is doing as Transportation Secretary.  Works hard, takes the job seriously, is grounded in reality, is a problem solver.  Compare that to the idiots with (R) next to their names. >
  
  My issues with him have to do with things not actually happening. Throwing money at the base doesn't mean it's going where it needs to go. Much of what happened at the ports didn't need to happen, and before the two airline fiascos  38 (thirty-eight!) state attorney generals had penned a letter telling them things were messed up with the airlines and it was basically ignored. At one point they were told things couldn't be followed up because he was on leave and those acting temporarily didn't have the authority but...
  There's nothing wrong with paternity leave, but there's also context. Would we want the president to go on paternity leave, especially while there's a large shipping crisis? Would we want the VP to? Secretary of Defense? People and roles are not interchangeable, and something like a CEO stepping out can have massive impacts on a company. There's nothing wrong with it, but if you accept a job like Secretary of Transportation it's not a normal job.
  It gets even worse that when you bring something like the above up, they talked about the importance of paid leave but that kind of disappeared when it came to the rail workers who wanted paid sick days. >
  
  1) The letter revolves around states wanting the right to regulate their own interest in airlines, the article you linked even stresses that. The DoT responded that they were investigating and levied millions of dollars of fines in November and has collected more in fines from airlines than under any other administration in history, hardly “ignoring” it.
  2) I’m just gonna pretend that none of the homophobic undertones of this argument exist, there hasn’t been a SINGLE documented instance of his availability causing an issue in processing under the DoT, in fact there are multiple references from both department leads and members of Congress where he took meetings at the hospital his children were under intensive care in. I would love to see something backing up this claim about ppl being told they didn’t have authority to address issues because these departments are designed to be able to maintain functionality while their heads are working on other projects.
  3) This is quite the false equivalency. The DoT has no influence over what demands the Unions have, that independence is the whole thing that makes unions work. Sure he was involved in helping to broker the deal the unions initially thought would work but if there’s anybody in the executive you would pin the failure on it would be Secretary Walsh who handles the LABOR department. Even then Congress are the ones who failed to get through the paid days. I’m seeing a lot of convenient through lines here that completely miss the chain of responsibility.
  Edit: Also I love your tidbit about money not going to ports when literal hundreds of millions of dollars have already been distributed to ports and the LITERAL HEAD OF THE AAPA has said the DoT has been instrumental in combating global supply chain issues. In coordination with the Californian Port Authority returning to pre-Pandemic production last year because of the funding and coordination of backend services from the DoT.