Great idea! Let’s make air traffic controllers work at Cash for Clunkers instead

The Washington Times article’s title sounds innocuous enough (h/t Hot Air), U.S. adds clerks to clear clunkers
Volunteers include FAA until you wonder who the FAA volunteers may be:

Employees of the FAA’s air-traffic-control unit were asked to help, but the Transportation Department stressed Friday that essential safety personnel were not diverted from their duties.

Let’s hope the air traffic controllers themselves weren’t. Still, the help ain’t cheap: According to one of Power Line‘s readers,

Another reader directs us to this salary table and adds that “overtime is capped at time and a half for a GS-10 Step 1 ($39.90/hr). A GS-15 Step 1 makes $57.90/hr whether straight working hours or overtime.”

As if that’s not bad enough,

Planners who expected to sell 250,000 cars in three months are now deluged with nearly twice that many applications seeking more than $2 billion in rebates after less than one month. Only 7 percent of the rebates have been paid, leaving many auto dealers out millions of dollars. Dealers were supposed to be repaid within 10 days.

Auto manufacturers have agreed to provide financial assistance to dealers until they are reimbursed.

You mean, the guys who needed to be bailed out in the first place? Why does the phrase “smoke and mirrors” pop to mind?

But hey, it doesn’t stop there: ‘Clunkers’ Program Benefits Foreign Automakers More, Data Shows
Smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles like the Toyota Corolla are top sellers, while buyers are trading in SUV’s like the Ford Explorer to be scrapped, turning the already dwindling number of American car owners into the growing ranks of foreign car drivers.

Is this a teachable moment? The New York Post editorial thinks so: Clunker Health Care:

Now consider health care.

The car program involved all of just $3 billion. Health care is a $2.4 trillion business, about 800 times bigger.

And, let’s be honest, ObamaCare aims to control as much of that as possible — with or without the “public option.”

So, will doctors be waiting for reimbursements?

Will patients be waiting to see doctors?

Yes, the president’s health-care promises — greater choice, lower costs, more folks insured — sound good. But they may prove just as hollow as what the car program claimed it would do.

And, again, if Americans find out they don’t like it, it’ll be too late.

Health care is way too important to entrust to bureaucrats. Monday, maybe the Obama folks should pull the plug on their health-care plans, too.

And, as you may recall, Robert Reich admitted nine days ago that

there’s still no healthcare plan. All we have are some initial markups from several congressional committees, which differ from one another in significant ways. The White House’s is waiting to see what emerges from the House and Senate before insisting on what it wants, maybe in conference committee.

Doesn’t that simply make you warm all over? Why, you can almost look forward to the day when overpaid FAA clerks (or even air traffic controllers themselves) are making the decisions on your health!

But back to cash for clunkers,
Maybe the dealers should go on vacation while they wait for their checks, and go fly the friendly unwatched skies in the hope that the check is in the mail?

Speaking of vacation, Dan has an ad,