Sleeping air traffic controllers in 2011 are the fault of Ronald Reagan firing striking workers in 1981, according to liberal comedienne Joy Behar. The View co-host on Thursday managed to blame the late President while talking about a recent series of napping air traffic controllers.
The left-wing comic bizarrely compared, "[Reagan] busted the union, the air controllers' union. And they probably would have been strict about having two people there, because the main thing about the unions is they want more people to work."
Fellow co-host Whoopi Goldberg joined in, complaining, "It sort of started with the- Ronald Reagan saying, you know, you guys asking for too much money. He fired everybody. He cleaned them all out."
[See video below. MP3 audio here.]
It was left to token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck to be the voice of reason. She pointed out: "Wait a minute. There's been many years between then and now. I think if it needed to be reevaluated and fixed, we've certainly had the opportunities to take a look at that and do something to prevent people from getting hurt."
A transcript of the exchange, which occurred at 11:05am EDT on April 14, follows:
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Do you think this has to do with budget? I wonder if staffing another person on there, the cost of that across the board, I'm hoping not, it's not the case.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: That they didn't cut the budget for-
HASSELBECK: I mean, imagine if this is budget cuts, a result.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: No, this is an issue, this has been ongoing I think for quite some time. But I think-
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: It sort of started with the- Ronald Reagan saying, you know, you guys asking for too much money. He fired everybody. He cleaned them all out.
BEHAR: He busted the union, the air controllers' union. And they probably would have been strict about having two people there. The main thing about the unions is they want more people to work.
HASSELBECK: Wait a minute. There's been many years between then and now. I think if it needed to be reevaluated and fixed, we've certainly had the opportunities to take a look at that and do something to prevent people from getting hurt.
