Sequester Furloughs Haven't Happened Yet, But Democrats Already Blaming Airport Delays On Cuts

This sort of thing makes me wonder how we ever managed to get by a few years ago when the national debt was like $6.5 trillion smaller.

National Review’s Jim Geraghty posts this picture sent in by a reader taken at the Miami airport:

As Geraghty notes, already delays are being blamed on the sequester spending reductions, but in terms of airport security those reductions haven’t happened yet per law:

For a short furlough of a covered employee, the law (5 U.S.C. 7513) gives a covered employee the following rights:

At least 30 calendar days advance written notice by the agency stating the specific reasons for the proposed action. (Typically, the reasons for the action would involve a lack of work or funds.) The 30 calendar day period begins upon an employee’s receipt of the written notice. Therefore, agencies should plan accordingly to allow time for mailing the notice when hand-delivery is not possible.

But that’s not stopping Democrats from carrying on as if the furloughs have already happened:

“The lines were not going to get better, they were going to get worse, “said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, “and that prediction came true.” The congresswoman toured local airports Monday to witness the delays firsthand. She called the situation “unacceptable.” …

While he toured the airport with Napolitano and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, [Democratic Rep. Joe] Garcia noted that half of the 72 booths at the international-passenger checkpoint were unstaffed on Wednesday.

According to Geraghty, furlough notices in the Department of Defense are going out this week, meaning the furloughs won’t actually start happening until late April at the earliest.

Meanwhile, what’s not sequestered is the Obama administration’s St. Patrick’s Day bash.