A Government Is More Than Capable of Addressing Multiple Crises At Once

“So, to be clear, I largely favor reducing the power of the very federal government being discussed in this piece, but that is quite different from arguing that, at its current scope and scale, it is somehow incapable of addressing multiple priorities at once.”

On March 13th, Reuters and other outlets reported that the Biden administration was continuing its efforts to combat certain airline fees that it has singled out as excessive. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, to this point, wrote a letter to lawmakers encouraging Congress to take up legislation to bar airlines from charging additional fees to families traveling with children under the age of 13 when an open, adjacent seat is already available. This comes just over a month after President Joe Biden took time during the State of the Union to reiterate his administration’s opposition to “junk fees, those hidden surcharges too many companies use to make you pay more,” drawing attention to such fees in air travel in particular. President Biden, in apparent recognition of the realities now imposed by a divided government following the midterm elections, has shown a desire to pursue bipartisan initiatives aimed at helping the average American consumer, in a move that NBC’s Chuck Todd has called “Bill Clinton-esque.”

In response, many critics have articulated some version of: At a time when there are crises in Ukraine, with immigration, inflation, and given growing economic precarity, the Biden administration should be focused on more pressing matters. As Andrea Catsimatidis, Chair of the Manhattan Republican Party, put it, “How about Biden talking about airline fees and resort fees because things are so bad in America right now that he can’t talk about the real issues in America right now.” This view was echoed by former National Republican Senatorial Committee senior advisor Matt Whitlock, who tweeted: “Real estate within a State of the Union address is INCREDIBLY valuable. There are tons of issues left on the cutting room floor./But Biden spent time on resort fees, airline tickets, and fast food workers non-competes.” [Emphasis original]

While it is surely true that the situation in Ukraine or at the Southern (and now Northern) border is more acute and consequential than comparatively minor concerns about airline fees, it is important to remember that a given presidential administration, whose purview includes nearly every crisis in the world, is always facing issues on many fronts. And, second, a large federal bureaucracy and a more than amply staffed House of Representatives and Senate are capable of (and must be demanded to be capable of) addressing many crises or issues at any given time.