Straighten up, fly right

Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta insisted unconvincingly Wednesday that he had no choice but to plunge American air travel into nightmarish, economy-sapping delays because of budget cuts imposed on his agency.

Testifying before a House subcommittee, Huerta said he did everything he could within the limits of practicality and the law to ease disruptions that, he claimed, were the unavoidable consequence of cutting a mere 4% out of the FAA’s nearly $6 billion annual budget.

Essentially, Huerta took the position that he was but an innocent bystander to the so-called budget sequestration approved by President Obama and Congress. He is anything but.

Only by presenting much more persuasive evidence could Huerta hope to convince fliers that he has well managed budget trims. More, granting him the benefit of huge doubt, it’s clear that he never asked Congress either to be spared cuts or for the authority to move money in order to maintain air service.

That failure has helped cement an impression that Obama, who first dreamed up sequestration, is using the fallout from across-the-board spending reductions as a weapon in budget negotiations with House Republicans.

As wrongheaded as sequestration was, that notion is even crazier.

Then again, Democrats and the White House have resisted giving Obama discretion to shift funds so as to ease bad impacts. But late Wednesday, the White House suddenly said the President is open to an FAA fix.

He’d better be, and he’d better get it done.

Straighten up, fly right