Pay attention to Wichita

Comments

1. The Doc says

   November 3, 2010 at 7:08 am

   I read this article with interest and then I responded to the editor of The Atlantic, because it was “painfully obvious” that Derek Thompson didn’t “have a clue”. I know that what I wrote could be considered “partisan”, but I could care less about “politically partisan”, but I believe everyone deserves the truth!

   This is what I wrote to Thompson:

   Dear Editor The Atlantic:

   I’ve just read Derek Thompson’s “glowing article”; ‘Aviation business makes Wichita a powerhouse exporter’. My suggestion is: Tell Mr. Thompson to do a “little recent research”, before he again does a “piece” on a subject of which he knows absolutely nothing, because that news is old…very old! About 30 years to be precise! Just look at the comments section under his article to get “recent feedback” from those who are “living the reality” in Wichita.

   As things stand now, Wichita is a “dying city”, where aviation manufacturing is concerned, I lament to say. Murdered by partisan Democrat politicians, in their quest for “power and control”! Its aviation infrastructure has been decimated by decades of “deliberate Democrat sabotage”! Once the “Incubator and Aviation Powerhouse” of the aviation world, Wichita has fallen victim to Democrat meddling and outright sabotage for “quick cash” in their pockets from “special interests”.

   Just as Democrats destroyed the iron and steel industry along the Great Lakes, turning it into the nations “rust-belt” and forcing all of the large steel firms out of the country or into bankruptcy and decimating the automobile, truck and tractor industry in the same area, leaving destitution, empty factories, blight and poverty in a land that was once the envy of the world, Wichita is now joining them, though it pains me greatly to say it!

   I have watched and chronicled these facts for many years. I worked in the aviation industry for 45 years, as a Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor (both civil and military), Combat pilot, Educator, Specialist, Accident Investigator, Senior Manager and Historian. I have lived, breathed and ate aviation for 57 years. At the age of 10, I walked 5 miles down a dusty gravel road on Sundays to a grass ranch airstrip and washed airplanes for free rides. If it’s done in aviation, I have done it!

   Companies that were “staples of Wichita manufacturing”, aircraft, avionics, instrumentation, engines, metals production and forming, firms producing machined products like screws and landing gear, specialty tire and rubber producers, the list is endless, have been forced by Democrats to go out of business. Some were able to reorganize or absorbed under the ownership of larger corporate structures or relocated to other states or countries, which left economic devastation, empty homes and destroyed lives in their wake! Already in the last year many cities have lost their “manufacturing base”. Cities like Salina, Ks. are looking for someone to take over the facilities of former aircraft manufacturers and suppliers who have moved operations out of the country, because of “unfavorable conditions” created by Democrats in this country.

   The people of Kansas are “the salt of the earth” and the very backbone of America, but so were the people of Cleveland, Toledo, Gary, Peoria, Galesburg, Newton, Davenport, Cedar rapids and Waterloo, Ia., Columbus, Southbend and hundreds of other great cities that were the “powerhouse of American manufacturing”, but they were all “sold-out” by “greedy Democrats”, who took “lobbyist cash” and turned a “blind eye” to their constituencies! Oh yes, Democrats told the voters and the workers unions they were on their side, but like Democrats have done for 150 years, they lied and took the cash! Despicable!

   This knowledge isn’t new! Anyone with “a yearn to learn”, can find the “grizzly details” of their betrayal of the American worker and manufacturer! I assure you, that if the American worker paid attention to what was really going on in this country, that directly effected their livelihoods and stopped listening to the “unmitigated and unfounded lies” of Democrats, there’d be hundreds of them hanging from every tree and lamp post in America, just from the “spill-over” of rage, at finding that they had been betrayed by those they supported!

   The “first death-knell” for the aviation industry, not just in Wichita, but the entire country, came immediately after Jimmy Carter was sworn in as President. Carter’s first act as President was to sign, at the behest of the DNC, a Presidential Pardon to quash two (2) outstanding felony warrants for one William Jefferson Clinton, who had been in hiding from several years abroad (not at Oxford as he had previously told everyone).

   Clinton had furtively returned to Arkansas and gotten elected that states Attorney General, but could not be “sworn in”, because of the two outstanding federal felony warrants against him. Carter’s next action was to fulfill a campaign promise to “deregulate” the airline industry. Two of Carter’s principle “big cash” supporters were Robert Crandall, CEO of American Airlines and an investor group in New York, who were the “Principle’s” of the Hedge Fund! It seems that both of these “entities” had deposited huge sums of cash with Carter’s campaign, to “ensure” his election, with the promise that he “deregulate”. These two “entities” wanted something they couldn’t get under the present CAB regulations. For Crandall it was routes to South America and Europe, that American had previously been unable to serve, because the markets were already saturated. Cab regulations were “fair and equitable” and “constructed thoughtfully” to preclude “over-competition” that would “financially cripple” any one particular carrier, thus ensuring that all routes inside and outside the country would always be served, because there would be no “cut-throat” fist-fights among carriers that would destroy service. Prior to Carter’s Presidency there were 57 “profitable” air carriers in the United States. Today, because of deregulation, there are only 5 air carriers and only one is making a profit! Rates and fees are skyrocketing for travelers. The American public was lied to by the Democrats who passed this legislation and promised “very low” travel fares after deregulation. Lower fares did occur on some “long-haul” routes, but smaller cities lost service all together or were burdened with excessively high fares. On balance, the American traveler has been stuck with huge fare increases or no service at all! Not a problem for Jimmy Carter, like Clinton, he profited hugely after leaving office and became a multi-millionaire! These two politicians had two things in common, both entered the Whitehouse virtually broke and destroyed millions of American’s livelihoods as a result of their respective Presidencies.

   The net loss of aviation related jobs, during and after the exit of Carter, was 11 million of the best paying, best benefited jobs in America and possibly the world. The net loss during and after Clinton, was 45 million of the “remaining” best paying, best benefited jobs in the country. The main difference between the two, was far more manufacturing jobs were lost because of Clinton and the Democrats, than Carter.

   However, the “final death-knell” for Wichita, Kansas and the aviation industry came in late 1990, during the Herbert Walker Bush Administration, when Democrats, along a “party-line vote” (Republican’s refused have anything to do with the Democrats “tax and spend charade”, that was intended to be used to “buy more welfare votes” to thus keep them in power), threatened to shut down the U.S. government, if Bush refused to sign into law their “Luxury Tax” on aircraft. Bush held out and planned the shut down of government rather that allow Democrats in Congress to dictate law and policy upon the Presidency and the country. Bush was eventually persuaded to sign the budget, to which the tax was attached, because of the outcry from American businesses and civic leaders, who swore that a shut down would cripple the country for years and bring on another Great Depression.

   It was here that the Democrats sacrificed (on the altar of stupidity) and destroyed the greatest aviation industry in the world! It has never returned to even a “shadow” of its former self since. All of the general aviation manufacturers were financially destroyed, because of the tax levied by Democrats on their industry. Cessna, Beech, Champion, Bellanca, Piper and a plethora of smaller manufacturers went bankrupt. Most had their assets “bought up” by conglomerates, who operate the industry today. In addition, all their suppliers of parts, metals, engines, tire and rubber products, radios, instruments, wiring looms, hydraulics, small parts, plastics ad infinitum! The “net” result of all this was the loss of just over 10 million jobs in the immediate aviation industry. These were some of the very best paying, best benefited jobs in manufacturing at the time. The industry and aviation has never recovered and it will take more than a Ronald Reagan to “bring it back”!

   Prior to Carter, the cost of a gallon of aviation fuel in the United States was .35 cents and jet fuel was .10 cents. When Carter took office, a new Cessna 150 (the most built and flown aviation training aircraft in the world) cost less than $20,000.00 and rented “wet” (with fuel and oil) for $15.00 an hour (higher on the east and west coasts). Before the time of the 1990 Democrat “Luxury Tax” debacle, the same aircraft cost $29,000.00 and rented “wet” for $25.00 an hour. The airplane that has now replaced it costs $150,000.00 and rents for $85.00 to $100.00 an hour. The largest aviation advocate in America, AOPA, can’t figure out why no one is any longer learning to fly! Incredulous! When I learned to fly, a Cessna 140 or 150 rented “wet” for $4 to $5.00 an hour, but Democrats had not yet been allowed to destroy the “economic viability” of our country and the aviation industry was booming! That must be the period Mr. Thompson was writing about in his article. LB

   PS: The Democrats estimated that the “Luxury tax” would generate $150 million dollars annually, for their “tax and spend welfare vote buying coffers”. By the time Republican’s were able to gain control of the Congress in 1995 (Democrats had controlled Congress since Eisenhower was President) and repealed the “Luxury tax” it had generated less than $50 million dollars and millions of American workers were financially and morally devastated, their homes and futures lost and in many cases their families and the futures of their children were destroyed as well! So much for the vanity, greed and lust for power of the Democrat! All that I have brought to the forefront here is well documented, and all Mr. Thompson had to do was look for it. But the lazy find nothing! I suggest that you refer this writing to Mr. Thompson and in that way provide some knowledge to his rather “sparse” repertoire of business and aviation lore. LB