Next gen affirmative 1ac advantage-Econ

A2: Elections

Reportedly, the public supports spending on aviation safety. A poll conducted in early March shows 68 percent of Americans support new technologies to improve air safety. Furthermore, 65 percent favor maintaining or increasing FAA funding levels. Only 19 percent polled favor cutting FAA's budget. Finally, a majority of Americans knowledgeable about FAA's satellite-based NextGen air traffic control system support its timely implementation. "Americans support improving our aviation system," Blakey said. "Funding NextGen is important. It will make our safe skies safer, reduce congestion and delays and improve aviation's environmental stewardship."

NEWARK -- A new public opinion poll on airports in the New York metropolitan region, including Newark Liberty International, confirmed with numbers what travelers already have confirmed with bleary eyes and tired feet: Flight delays are bad and getting worse. "Reducing flight delays" was listed by 92 percent of respondents as an important air travel concern in the region. The only concern that received a greater percentage was "keeping the price of air fares as low as possible," at 95 percent. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research polled 812 adults in a 31-county, three-state New York metropolitan region, including 252 respondents from New Jersey. Residents from New York and Connecticut were also polled. The poll was conducted Aug. 20-27 by the Regional Plan Association, a transportation advocacy group in the midst of a major study on ways to relieve congestion and delays at Newark Liberty, La Guardia and JFK International airports. The association’s goal is to research ways to relieve congestion in the next year and recommend which plans of action make the most sense. Jeffrey Zupan, the study director and a senior fellow at the association, said delays caused by air traffic congestion can damage the region’s economy. "Consider a business that flies a lot, and they are thinking about relocating in New York," he said. "Why would they relocate in New York if flying remains a hassle and they see no solution on the horizon?"Zupan said he was encouraged by the support respondents gave to potential solutions, including better rail alternatives, investment in a modern air traffic control system known as NextGen and redesign of air traffic flight patterns."What I found most important is that people were positive about a whole range of things that could be done," he said. After air fares and flight delays, the other top concerns were "making it easier and faster to check luggage and get your boarding" and "making the security lines easier and faster," both deemed important by 87 percent of respondents, and "making it easier and faster to get from the security area to the gate" (86 percent). It was the association’s first poll to gauge public input on the region’s three major airports. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty, La Guardia and JFK airports, called NextGen satellite technology essential to long-term reduction of flight delays in the region. "The public’s encouraging support for this modernization will be critical to obtaining the necessary federal funding," the agency said in a statement. "We have been making runway and taxiway improvements at our airports to improve the movements of planes on the ground, but airspace and air-traffic control improvements are essential to minimizing gridlock in our skies

Regional Plan Association today released the results of a public opinion poll on airports in the New York - New Jersey - Connecticut metropolitan area. The poll shows that, except for the cost of air travel, the public believes flight delays are the biggest problem plaguing travel, and that many solutions are heavily supported including better rail alternatives, use of Stewart Airport in Orange County for more flights, investment in modern air traffic control systems known as NEXTGEN and redesign of air traffic flight patterns.

A2: Elections

61% of the public is in favor of NextGen

Better Airports 2009 (betterairportsnow.org, “NEW POLL: BIG CONCERNS ABOUT NYC METRO AIRPORT DELAYS” http://www.betterairportsnow.org/2009/09/new-poll-big-concerns-about-nyc-metro-airport-delays.html)

There is wide-ranging support for potential solutions. Four ideas received at least 20 % more favoring than opposed. (See Appendix A: Congestion Proposals.) These include speeded up intercity rail service - 69 % favor and only 27 % oppose; use of Stewart Airport in Orange County for more flights to relieve the three airports - 64 % favor to 32 % oppose; investment in modern air traffic control systems known as NEXTGEN - 61 % favor to 34 % oppose, and redesign of air traffic flight patterns - 58 % favor to 35 % oppose.

Obama will lose the election if he doesn’t boost aerospace infrastructure

Thompson 2011 Dr. Loren B. Thompson is Chief Operating Officer of the non-profit Lexington Institute and Chief Executive Officer of Source Associates, a for-profit consultancy. He holds doctoral and masters degrees in government from Georgetown University and a bachelor of science degree in political science from Northeastern University. May 13, 2011

http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/obama-mis-steps-on-aerospace--defense-could-lose-election?a=1&c=1171

The White House has decided not to comment on a looney complaint brought by the National Labor Relations Board that argues Boeing shouldn’t be allowed to open an aircraft plant in South Carolina because building such a facility in a right-to-work state could undercut the bargaining position of labor unions in Washington State. It’s an absurd argument that has reawakened every fear businessmen harbored about the president being a closet socialist. Speaking as an independent who voted for Obama in 2008 and expects to vote for him again, I’m embarrassed by the whole affair. But what really worries me is that if the White House keeps making bad calls on major aerospace and defense issues, the electoral fallout could destroy its re-election chances. Mr. Obama is by no means a shoo-in for reelection, because his election in 2008 was largely the result of a promise to end the unpopular war in Iraq and his approval ratings since being elected have seldom managed to rise above 50 percent. Personally, I think he made the right calls on bailing out Detroit and reforming healthcare. But he can’t afford to offend any of the swing states that will probably decide the outcome of the 2012 election — states like Florida, Iowa and Ohio — and lately his subordinates seem to be working overtime to do just that. Take the National Labor Relations Board effort to block the opening of the aircraft plant in South Carolina. The NLRB is sure to lose if the case goes to a federal court, but in the meantime, thousands of people in South Carolina who might have secured good-paying jobs at the new Boeing plant will have to keep searching just because they live in a right-to-work state. Obama wasn’t going to win South Carolina anyway, but how are people going to react to this crazy case in other right-to-work states like Arizona, Iowa and Virginia? Not by voting for the president. Why doesn’t the White House just admit the NLRB made a mistake and drop the case? Or take the administration’s inept handling of NASA’s human spaceflight program. Thousands of NASA employees in the critical swing state of Florida are losing jobs because the Space Shuttle is retiring and the White House decided to cancel a successor program called Constellation. Voters in Florida’s central region around Cape Kennedy hold the electoral balance of power between the state’s conservative north and more progressive south, so wiping out thousands of jobs there with a poorly conceived plan to restructure the manned spaceflight program could kill Obama’s prospects in the Sunshine State. Is it possible that White House political operatives don’t recall how a few thousand votes in Florida delivered the White House to Bush in 2000? And then there’s Ohio, the one state that candidates must carry to win the White House. I can’t fault the administration on pushing to kill an extra engine for the F-35 fighter that would have been built in Ohio, because the engine was a total waste of money. But to also propose closing the nation’s only tank plant, which is also located in Ohio, is just plain dumb — dumb as a management strategy (the Army wants to reopen it three years later), dumb as a security policy (we need at least one warm production line for heavy armor), and dumb as an electoral move (Ohioans can’t help noticing that they always seem to be in the cross-hairs of administration budget cutters). When is this White House going to wake up to the fact that the aerospace and defense industry is one of the last big concentrations of organized labor left in the private-sector economy — an industry whose workers could provide the margin of victory in swing states like Colorado and Missouri and Pennsylvania and Virginia? I’m not saying the administration should be backing bad ideas just to win votes, but on NLRB, NASA and the tank plant, it is doing foolish things that alienate millions of voters. A few more mistakes like these and we could end up with Governor Christie as president in two years.

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