it would be totally ok to be a federal jobs program if it actually provided unintrusive security. rather, the problem is that it's corrupt, funneling large amounts of tax dollars to private enterprise for no benefit and a boatload of individual slights. instead, the tsa should turn half of the nearly 50K screeners into canine teams roaming all the ports, letting people walk through with just an electronic bag screen.
That would be a better jobs program. You’d employ the various purveyors of dog care products, vets and other services, some of which benefit society in a more meaningful way than a rent a cop.
Better yet, why not a federal jobs program that does something useful?
I.E the CCC during the depression era.
If only the US were in dire need of massive infrastructure refurbishment projects.
If the government wants to make jobs programs, it makes more sense to have the people getting the jobs do something productive rather than non-productive(if that is what you think the TSA is). For example, a lot of manual, mostly unskilled labor is needed for road maintenance and repair - why wouldn't the government just create/expand a jobs program for that instead?
Because half the government thinks that the government shouldn't be doing things other than security theater?
Because that would take precious jobs away from the private sector and the rich couldn’t get richer /s