Walter In Denver

Yes, certainly such a thing would NEVER happen if the screeners were hired by a state agency.

Why would we want the state to do it? It could be done just as poorly privately! Now we just get to pay a lot more and live under a whole new level of bureaucracy when the feds do it - and probably do it worse than anyone else would.

My recollection of the "quality" of the security guards in the pre-TSA is that they were a heck of a lot worse. While there are exceptions, I've found the security folk at DIA to generally be professional, courteous, and helpful. The previous private contract folks were none of the above.

The TSA hired in a hurry. In many cases the screeners are the very same people who were doing the job before, but now with spiffy new uniforms.

I haven't noticed much of a difference with the screeners at DIA post 911, except that trying to pick people up who are arriving has become more of a pain in the butt, and they always want to look in the back of my truck when parking. However I spent over 2 hours trying to get through customs and security to enter the US, this was at the Atlanta airport. I am a citizen and was not happy that it was harder and more tedious for me to get back into my home country, then it was to enter 2 separate foreign countries in Europe on that same trip (France, Italy).

P.S. Lesson #1, always carry cash on your person and never let go of it. I don't trust anybody very far around my money. But when they work for the government (like the TSA screeners) I trust them even less.

Well if the federally hired screeners aren't worse than the prior screeners, they will be before long because over time government-run agencies deteriorate because of no competition. (Think of Department of Motor Vehicles and the post office.) No doubt private companies could do this job better and cheaper!

The point is only that one larcenous individual proves nothing about the system who hired her or him. Private, state, or federal - there will always be thieves, and you need to make a better connection about why the federal screeners aren't up to snuff.

Check that, reverse it. The Feds need to make the case to us that a big new bureaucracy is necessary. We don't need to prove their incompetence in every case, because their track record, I.E. education, the economy, the environment, welfare, law enforcement, and more, are enough to put the burden of proof on them. They've failed at every turn. Why should they be any good at guarding air traffic?