Posted on 07/23/2013 2:48:49 AM PDT by TexGrill
If full-body scanners and TSA pat-downs make you feel uncomfortable, you now have an alternate option – for the hefty price of $85.
The Transportation Security Administration has launched a new program that will allow members to bypass regular airport security checkpoints. Those enrolled in the “trusted traveler” program, called TSA PreCheck, will no longer have to remove their shoes, jackets, and belts. Members can also keep their laptop computers in their bags.
Currently, only members of frequent-flier programs are given the opportunity to apply without paying a fee. But TSA Administrator John Pistole on Friday announced that all travelers will soon be able to join PreCheck – as long as they pay $85, provide identifying information, pass a background check, and undergo fingerprinting.
Pistole said that enrollment will be opened to the public later this year, and that he expects an additional 3 million people to sign up for PreCheck before the end of the year. About 12 million travelers are currently enrolled.
If his estimates are accurate, the TSA will reap about $255 million from the program in 2013.
Applicants must visit an enrollment site to undergo identification verification and fingerprinting. PreCheck enrollment will be launched at Washington Dulles International and Indianapolis International airports later this year.
“America’s travel community applauds TSA for making its highly successful trusted traveler program, PreCheck, more accessible to the traveling public,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement. “By expanding PreCheck enrollment options, today’s action by TSA will help speed more Americans safely through the U.S. air travel system while strengthening America’s aviation security. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
PreCheck passengers receive a Known Traveler Number that allows them to use special security lanes at more than 40 participating airports in the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
So it is just another tax. But this makes no sense. Every terrorist will sign up for the program.
Don’t they have similar programs in Ecuador or Nigeria or something?
Except their programs are less corrupt.
Thank you presidenr hussein; the United States is now even more degenerate than the average Third World sh*t hole, thanks to you.
And thanks to all the venal and idiotic morons who voted for you.
An effing 'protection racket'.
TSA will protect us from terrorist unless terrorist willing pay $85. This whole thing is pointless at this point.
Bingo! Nothing but extortion.
Nice luggage you got there, besides the ticket cost it will now cost you $85 to get on this airplane or else.
Now this is profiling. show me your papers. Pay the poll tax.
That’s racist Sir.
The way things are on airlines these days the grope is the highlight of my trip.
I enrolled in April, but the earliest I could schedule an in-person interview with TSA was August.
No, it’s not a tax. It’s the way things are going to be done in the future. You will purchase your rights from the government, if you can. If not, you will be a slave.
Call it an indulgence, perhaps.
So you pay the $85 and they still grope ya?!
WTH!?
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“Every terrorist will sign up for the program.”.
Goes to show you my theory was right, the TSA is indeed “brain dead”.
That’s when their coffee break is over,
But seriously...didn’t this program take over a decade to launch?
It’s not a tax. IT’S A BRIBE.....
You’re talking the GOES program right? It’s slightly different (but also allows for TSA Pre). There are supposedly going to be more interview locations for this.
$85???
Or you can slip the tsa lady $15 for a happy ending....
/s
So, it only costs $85 if you want to blow up an airplane?
This absolutely PROVES the whole ‘security’ system at airports is a complete scam. They don’t care one bit about security.
This is lunacy and extortion at the same time.
How stupid is the idea that the TSA is saving us from anything?
Is any terrorist dumb enough to actually go through a TSA line? Answer: HELL NO!
Think of the fact that probably 95% of all workers in the “secure area” of the flight-line ARE NOT SCREENED each time they come to work and leave work.
Worse yet, all that it takes is a “rag head” at the end of the runway (or the front of it) to simply fire a RPG or high powered rifle at a critical part of a jet taking off or landing to kill everyone on it as it crashes.
The ONLY REASON for the formation of the TSA is to train Americans to freely trade their freedoms for “safety” with the main reason to indoctrinate them into passing through check-points without question in preparation for absolute control by our government in the near future.
This doesn’t sound like a very good idea to me. For frequent flyers, OK, the airlines are very familiar with those people. But to just let anyone pay a fee and go through, what’s to stop some terrorist wannabe from doing that. I’m sure there are plenty of scum out there who have “clean” backgrounds. Of course they’d never make it so it’s not open to Muslims, would they?
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