While we’ll see if anything comes of this, the Trump administration is reportedly seeking a creative way to pay air traffic controllers, as the government shutdown enters its fourth week…
Continue reading: Trump Exploring Ways To Pay Air Traffic Controllers During Shutdown
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Trump could start by diverting the funds that would otherwise be used to pay White House and Congressional salaries.
Or move the money from his royal ballroom, or not create a tacky arch behind the Lincoln Memorial, or return the two private jets Fellatio Barbie claims to need for for DHS, and the list goes on and on...
Trump could actually work to end this government shutdown that him and his party have caused but no
500.000.000/13.000 =38.461,54
38.461*12=461.532
So in average, an Air Traffic controller costs USD460k per year? Is that only the payrolls or also for other benefits ?
„ The government would need to find over $500 million per month to cover the payrolls of the 13,000 air traffic controllers, so that’s a significant amount of money. “
This is the third government shutdown Trump and his Republican colleagues have afflicted this country with.
The first shutdown occurred when Trump, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House couldn't compromise and engage in basic governance.
The second shutdown occurred when Trump, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House couldn't compromise and engage in basic governance. It was resolved when the Democrats took control of the House.
This third shutdown is occurring--and stop me if you've heard this before!--because Trump, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House can't compromise and engage in basic governance.
good for him for finding a way to keep ATC working and the controllers paid.
If you fund enough services during the shutdown, social security is included, then maybe you start lopping off parts of the government that really AREN'T necessary.
for those who didn't notice, this shutdown is a war of attrition. If the outcome is a smaller government, we might all be winners.
This will get solved before Thanksgiving. No politician wants the shutdown to extend to a major holiday and all the implications that will cause with not only massive delays, but safety.
It is quite the effective (albeit forced) exercise of determining what is actually important and essential. If we don’t feel the pain of it being gone, maybe we don’t actually need the service.
It requires 60 votes in the senate. Dems aren't budging. Even CNN agrees it's the Dems holding this up. The CR passed the house. Facts matter.
Lol maybe the Fascists should stop acting like well fascists and not screw minorities and the poor.
ATC, the military, and really all government workers should be paid regardless of a shutdown. Congress is the entity whose members should not be paid during such failed negotiations (even though, arguably, most congresspersons make their real money from insider trading and lobbying 'gratuities,' which is a different problem that really needs solving, too.) That 2019 bill signed after those shutdowns should have done more than just ensure their backpay; it should have maintained existing funding and pay for those government workers throughout the shutdown, then settle the difference later.
Sure hope so. And ideally it also means that those subsidies for 20 million American citizens healthcare is added back to the budget, because people will die because of that if it is not resolved. Healthcare is a human right. We deserve better in the USA.
You 'small government' types pretend to care about the Constitution, but clearly, you are the industrialists who back the authoritarian, and you don't care until it affects you personally. That's a bad bargain, Tim. We want Congress (elected representatives of the people and the states) to have its checks and balances on the executive and the judiciary, through its power of the purse (to set the budget, etc.) Lest we forget why we declared independence from the British monarchy.
You bet the Democrats are needed, and they want to ensure healthcare for Americans. It's nice to see them finally fight back and hold firm for once. Saddest thing earlier this year was seeing NY Senator Schumer fold for nothing. You give Trump an inch, he'll take a mile; time to say 'enough' and 'no more.' Hope they get what they want in the end. It's worth it.
Agreed. If we can give away $40 billion to Argentina on a whim without asking Congress, then he can agree to continue the healthcare subsidies for American citizens... otherwise, so much for 'America First.'
While I totally agree, that's not really where those folks make their money. The pittance $400K or $174K is nothing compared to the grift that most of these politicians run with insider trading and 'gratuities' from lobbying. However, the worst of them all at this point really is Trump with the crypto schemes and other self-dealing, stealing billions for him and his family, personally. If Carter had to give up his peanut farm, my goodness... there's really no comparison here to the excessive abuses of power, law, and privilege with #47.
There's no shortage of money (see $40 billion to Argentina on a whim recently). This is all about priorities. Trump lied; it's not 'America First,' it's him first, everyone else last, and we all pay for it.
A good start; like, if Carter had to sell his peanut farm, fair is fair... valued at $400 million, plus, think of the savings of $1 billion his planned renovations to that 'gift'... hey, random, but why do the Qataris have a military base in.. Idaho? Are we... dah-ho?
A good start; like, if Carter had to sell his peanut farm, fair is fair... valued at $400 million, plus, think of the savings of $1 billion his planned renovations to that 'gift'... hey, random, but why do the Qataris have a military base in.. Idaho? Are we... dah-ho?
Why pay them, they have to work even if they don't get paid under the law right?
What are they going to do if they don't have their ATC job, work at Maccas?
People are too caught up in the fact that they need to get paid for their jobs, should be happy enough that they are serving Trump and the country, you don't see our President talking about getting paid for dedicating his time for free to the country already.
I agree; your math is correct. Let’s get the facts and figures straight. Ben, as editor, you dropped the ball big time on this one.
How would any of us like to work without pay, with mandatory overtime in a stressful occupation, with no assurance of when a paycheck would be received?
On a side note, check out the Freakanomics Radio podcast. Two recent podcasts which thoroughly investigate the current status of major issues impacting FAA and ATC. It’s excellent.
Whilst I don’t disagree that they deserve and earn every cent, finding out just how much air traffic controllers make has left me confused as to how any are living paycheck to paycheck
He seems more like traditional Republican; which, is rare to find these days. Like, Tim is sane, but still wants the tax cuts and deregulation, even if it the quid pro quo is that we become a dictatorship under a madman. Tim, historically, it doesn’t work out well…
As sorry a character as Trump is, he is showing that he is a man of the people by paying atc and the military while the democrats are being elitest to try to shut them out. The Senate should debate 24/7 until there is an agreement, attendance required or prison with torture
Ah, ‘man of the people’ … $40 billion to Argentina… and $1 billion to renovate his ‘gift’ 747 from Qatar… and a gold ballroom… second Gilded Age it seems… let them eat (McDonalds)!
Correct! He accepts ‘gratuities’ (bribes) instead via his own cryptocurrency, far exceeding $400K, likely billions of dollars… most corrupt, criminal President ever.
Trump most certainly is not a "man of the people." As for the democrats, they are trying to keep subsidies for health insurance for the lower income portion of the population (and not illegal immigrants, who are disqualified from such benefits). But I do agree with you that the Senate and the House (who is denying a significant portion of the state of Arizona without representation by refusing to swear in their recently elected Representative) should both be kept in session to work this out.
There should be a Constitutional Amendment that anytime there is a shutdown for more than 2 days due to Congress' failure to pass a budget (separate from the President refusing to sign it) then every sitting member of Congress is barred from ever running for federal office again once (Congress or President) their term ends.
Also, I think the 2019 Bill, which was signed by Trump, mandated backpay for government workers during shutdowns, even if they were furloughed. Of course, Trump is now trying to get around it by either firing government employees or finding some other excuse to not give backpay to those furloughed.
It's not like the looming budget deadline was a secret. Why didn't they have these discussions over the summer?
Prior to the Carter administration, a failure to pass a budget meant the government kept operating based on the previous fiscal year's budget. Carter's AG made an ahistorically and abnormally strict reading of the Anti-Deficiency Act and based on that reading forced the government to shut down. Since then both sides have basically taken it as gospel that in absence of a new budget the government must cease to operate, which is just extraordinarily stupid and could be reversed legitimately easily. We shouldn't NEED to ensure backpay during shutdowns, shutdowns shouldn't be a thing period.
@Sel D
Nothing prevents the Republicans from ending the filibuster and passing a party line budget. The filibuster is a senate rule adopted at the start of each session, it does not need a 60 vote majority to remove and this Senate has already done so for specific items they wanted done. They won't do it here though because they desperately want their healthcare cuts to have a bipartisan veneer on them when real Americans get mad about their premiums skyrocketing.
This isn't the Dem's fault when Trump has refused to negotiate, the GOP majority has passed party-line rescissions to "deals" they made, and Vought has been given the power to just unilaterally impound funding. This is a Republican circus.
Sorry but Trump doesn’t have the power to decide how to spend the government’s money without the approval of Congress. Whomever you blame for the shutdown and whether it’s a good thing to pay service people, it’s a blatant violation of the Constitution.
Except, just like the way he “figured out”how to pay the military, it’s blatantly unconstitutional for the president to decide how to spend government money without at least some authorization from Congress.
Bigger issue is that these small government types clearly haven’t read the Constitution. If they did so they would know that, regardless of whether paying the military or ATC would be good (I think both are), the President can’t do so without congressional authorization, which he currently lacks.
Presidents have been siezing congressional authority for years. Obama did it with DACA and modifying immigration enforcement. Congress can always sue, but what politican is going to not support our troops in public.
Those subsidies were added for the Covid emergency. That emergency has long past. Just throwing money at healthcare will never reform the system that is broken.
"The authoritarian" was democratically elected and has a mandate from the people. There is a majority in the House and Senate that support opening govt. You have mixed up who the authoritarian party is here.
it is simply as stated by someone else above.
If government isn't funded long enough, people will decide what is necessary and what is not.
ATC is necessary. They shouldn't have to work w/o being paid.
Other pieces of government, not so much.
and, 1990, in case you missed it, Congress has had pathetic approval ratings for decades under both parties.
Congress doesn't work any more and that is why we are in this mess.
If there is anything "party" about it, it is that Reds say they won't be held hostage to the Blue's attempts to just keep allowing government to get more bloated instead of solving problems.
Throwing money because Congress on both sides can't figure out how to govern is what doesn't work.
Haha, what is the Dem end game? They dont control any branch of govt to implement their policies. Elections have consequences. This is a publicity stunt verse actually working to effect real change.
@1990 A loan to Argentina is different than giving away money. Did you say the same thing when Biden gave tens of billions to Ukraine to fund their govt operations? Your TDS is showing.
The House isn't needed for now. It is the Senate that needs to debate 24/7, no exceptions except maybe 5-7 minute bathroom breaks every hour or two.
The Dems never met a dollar they didn't want to spend. What's wrong with the continuing resolution?
Well let’s not jump to conclusions on the initial math. it’s possible the 500M includes ALL expenses to make ATC run, including support staff, and expenses, as well as the employee gov retirement costs and healthcare…. i just don’t think we should immediately believe a salary number calc that is clearly not in line with logic here.
If you have to ask what wrong’s you’ve not been paying attention, or you just don’t care.
I am very empathetic to the plight of everyone impacted by the shutdown, but paying ATC, or the military, or Congress is a hard “no” for me.
Start paying people and three things happen. First, Trump pays who he wants to pay and the rest can eat cake. Second, by paying the military and ATC the pressure is reduced in Congress to act like adults for a change and compromise. Third, this is used as an excuse to dismantle agencies needed for a well-functioning government and society.
Perhaps he can use his own money rather than demolishing parts of the White House and turning it into a bordello.
@Brian W you are correct that throwing money at things is generally not a good solution, but neither is taking healthcare aware of over 11 million Americans.
What people don’t seem to get is that you are paying for everyone to get healthcare one way or another. So, if you want to stop wasting money on healthcare then given everyone healthcare.
The US spends twice as much on healthcare per citizen as the next closest country, yet we rank 37th in outcomes. Why? Because we refuse to treat healthcare as a basic human right. We’d rather bankrupt Americans rather than build a system that works for everyone.
Where's the proof? Leftist and treasonists are always sprouting these accusations that he took bribes etc. but where's the proof? If he was that bad, do you think people in his administration would stand for these things, they would've spoken up already and left out of principles alone.
Or Trump could make the smart decision.
Automate all ATC, remove all humans (with their error prone nature) and save lives plus that monthly $500M forever.
Well good for the ATC staff. But the USA should first pay out civilian staff in Nato countries which have not received payment for the work.
The legal situation is clear, the local law has to be applied and simply not paying your employess is illegal in all of Europe.
But of course the waitress in the canteen of an Airforce barrack has much less politial power than the ATC controller who calls in sick just before Thanksgiving.
There is no way the payroll is $500M per month, for 13,000 people that would correspond to an annual salary of $461K. I don’t know for sure the average ATC salaries but as federal employees it is less than about $180K which is the maximum not accounting for geogrpahic differentials.
@Brian W
Yeah, a "loan" just like the PPP "loans" amirite? All the GOPniks were assuring me they were never intended to be paid back. Have you SEEN Argentina's currency? For reference, my wife is from Argentina and her dad still lives there. There is no universe where Argentina pays back that loan, and from a cold strategic standpoint what does that loan get us? WHY do we need to loan Argentina 40 billion USD? For Ukraine at least, the answer to why we sent them old military equipment and invested billions into OUR OWN arms production capacity to provide them missiles and shells is obvious: letting Putin annex a European country by force of arms sets an incredibly dangerous precedent.
I personally wouldn't mind the government opening and Republican healthcare cuts taking place...... if that's what it takes to bring a disreputable country back to its senses and vote accordingly next year in November, putting further breaks on the madman in the Oval Office.
You're forgetting benefits (contributions to retirement plans, health insurance, etc) which can easily reach 1/3 or more of salary. That said, the math still doesn't work out because annual pay+benefits is unlikely to average out to $461k - it might be $250k or $275k for the highest paid employees. Maybe the $500m includes other employees, not just ATC.
Trump and his family have so far made more then $3.4 billion off the presidency through corruption and grift, and that's just in his second term, and just through the middle of summer. Maybe he is thinking of using some of these ill-gotten profits to pay ATC salaries.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/the-number
They should be paid. They are critical personnel doing a real job. They are not the DEI Director in the Department of ..... These men and women while "government" are not part of the massive and bloated bureaucracy that costs $5 trillion a year to float.
@Romey
Check your numbers before spouting off. The federal government doesn't cost anywhere near that to run. As for "bloated", you can literally look this up. The civilian bureaucracy hasn't meaningfully changed in size since the '60s. It hovers around 3 million workers, and as of the end of 2024 we were still around 300-400k people less than the government employed in 1990.
If you want actual bloated bureaucracy, look no further than your state, county, and municipal governments. The Fed aint it.
I think Trump should privatise air-traffic controllers. Probably get better pay and better quality…
If we could stop giving free-be $$$ to ?? Haiti to study insects($2.0Million) and other countries that CHuck and his Dems want to fund maybe w could end the shut down!!!
Youe TDS ia showing FYI look up JOe and HUnter what did they made and the CLintons and obummer Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
100% AGREE AND AT THE SAME TIME, STOP PAYMENTS TO CONGRESS! WATCH HOW FAST THEY COMPROMISE. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD COME FIRST AND OUR DEBT IS NOT GOING DOWN ANY TIME SOON!
This is how ignorance is spread, if you stop listening to democrats and pay attention to the details educating yourself:
The US is giving Argentina a $20 billion currency swap line, which is a type of loan that allows Argentina's central bank to exchange pesos for dollars to stabilize its economy. The U.S. government also announced a potential additional $20 billion from private sources, though this is separate from the official government deal.
LOAN to ARGENTINA -> MEANS IT HAS TO BE PAID BACK.
THE OTHER $20B IS PRIVATE $$$,
WHY IS IT THAT YOU PEOPLE CAN'T COMPREHEND FACTS?
This is how ignorance is spread, if you stop listening to democrats and pay attention to the details educating yourself:
The US is giving Argentina a $20 billion currency swap line, which is a type of loan that allows Argentina's central bank to exchange pesos for dollars to stabilize its economy. The U.S. government also announced a potential additional $20 billion from private sources, though this is separate from the official government deal.
LOAN to ARGENTINA -> IT HAS TO BE PAID BACK.
THE OTHER $20B IS PRIVATE $$$,
WHY IS IT THAT YOU PEOPLE CAN'T COMPREHEND FACTS?
As ATC total pay would be less than 200 million per month - what is rest for ?
@JBCH
My wife is Argentinian. Her family lives in Argentina and we chat frequently. But even without that "on the ground" knowledge, all you have to do is look at this chart to understand why the "currency swap" is a freaking sham:
https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/ARS-USD?window=MAX
In just under 20 years, the Argentine Peso lost 99.58% of its value compared to the USD. 1 USD was about 3 pesos. In January 2025, 1 USD was about 1,070 (ONE THOUSAND AND SEVENTY) pesos. As of writing this, 1 USD is 1,483 pesos. And that's the "official" exchange rate, in practice the peso is worth even less. This is not a loan. It will not be paid back. Argentina has no ability to pay this back. This is flushing $40b DOWN THE TOILET.
I guess he’s intending to do some major air travel back and forth to Florida and god knows where else which would require Air Traffic Controllers