Taking a flight this Fourth of July weekend? Good luck! You are going to need it.
The U.S. airline industry is in disarray. Flight cancellations and delays are on the rise. So are ticket prices. Passengers are understandably outraged, and the chaos is unlikely to abate anytime soon.
Even some left-wing pundits have been wondering what the hell Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is doing, if anything, to try and rectify the situation.
Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, said he got significant pushback in April after calling Buttigieg "an unmitigated catastrophe at the Department of Transportation." That is no longer the case.
"I got so much crap for pointing out Pete Buttigieg is completely incompetent in his job at the Department of Transportation," Stoller wrote on Wednesday. "Now that flight cancellations are routine the pushback is minimal."
Ari Rabin-Havt, a Democratic policy adviser, gave voice to the vast majority of Americans who think Buttigieg is a robotic nerd without the necessary qualifications to lead a federal agency, writing: "Who would have thought the mediocre mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city would not be a good choice to run the Department of Transportation?"
Buttigieg did take action this week, announcing a new government transportation initiative. The department will spend $1 billion "to build racial equity in roads," the Associated Press reported. The money was allocated as part of last year's bipartisan infrastructure bill, which Buttigieg touted as a significant step toward improving the nation's "racist" highways.
Speaking of roads, the Biden administration continues to belittle the American public's concern over rising gas prices. President Joe Biden on Thursday said hardworking Americans should be prepared to pay nearly $5 per gallon for "as long as it takes."
White House adviser Brian Deese doubled down on the president's offensive remarks, arguing that paying more for gas was necessary for the preservation of the "Liberal World Order."
Buttigieg and other Democrats have suggested that Americans should stop whining about high gas prices and buy an electric car. In October, the transportation secretary bragged about purchasing a brand new Ford Mustang Mach-E for his security detail.
The fancy electric vehicle was made in Mexico to avoid giving jobs to hardworking Americans. It has a nominal starting price of $43,895, but is more likely to be listed for between $60,000 and $80,000. Last month, Ford announced a recall of nearly 49,000 Mach-E vehicles due to a safety defect that "could result in a loss of power [while driving], which could cause a crash."