The TSA and the Federal Government Has Pulled a Scam on the American People

Did you know that the nation's airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.--Byron York

I guess the question is why did the American people allow the TSA to have this much power in the airports? Why did we let it go this far? Perhaps we were too busy watching Dancing with the Stars to see how the TSA was twisting our rights away.

Two years, that's all they were required to be at the airports, and trust me, I hated this organization from the first time that I flew after 9/11. I was in Washington DC desperate to get home to Chicago which had just been hit by a blizzard. I took off my dress shoes five times to get on that plane, which was the fourth flight I had tried to get on due to cancellations. My ticket was a red flag, and my only crime was living in an area that got lots of snow in January.

So why did the American people let it get this far? Why does the American people let the government get this far with anything it does from spending to these checkpoints. Because we trust our leaders. The TSA are like taxes. They came with sunset, but the sun never sets.

We became conditioned to their presence--after all, they are there to "protect" us. We are just as responsible as anybody for this mess because not enough spoke out before we let them gain the power they have over us today. Nobody envisioned in America after 9/11 the TSA would be feeling us up and taking naked full body scans while recording biometric data about us. All we wanted to do is get on an airplane and feel safe, and in the end, it cost us our liberties to a point.

Now we know the aiports can kick out this oppressive form of government, it's time we start demanding the airports kick the TSA out--even if it means an up-charge to pay for private security at the airport. I'd rather pay $5 to a private organization whose powers will be quite limited than allow the federal government to continue down this road of oppression.