Are you a frequent flyer?

If so, you really should get Clear, a service that allows you to shorten your wait time in the TSA security line. 

It costs $189 a year, so if you don't fly often, you might want to pay the time tax, but if you fly more than 2-3 times a year it is well worth it to simplify your airport experience and reduce aggravation. 

Ugh.. why can't politicians just not get involved. Of course it's 2 California politicians who want to get rid of @Clear https://t.co/rnMvjyH6bl via @politico

— Peter Pham (@peterpham) April 23, 2024

Aggravation, of course, is exactly what the DEI crowd wants people to experience, and since more White people are likely to buy Clear, California legislators are looking to ban the service. 

To be clear, Clear is not the same as the federal government's TSA pre-check, which gets you around even more barriers than Clear does. Rather, the company uses biometric IDs to ensure the identity of the person preparing to fly. It is sort of a pre-screening, in which you exchange money and agree to give a company your fingerprints and a retina scan in exchange for a shorter line experience. 

Very dystopian, and yes, I pay for it. I hate lines. 

A pair of Orange County state senators from opposing parties — who frequently fly between their districts and Sacramento — are both boosting a first-in-the-nation proposal critics say would ban the expedited security screening company CLEAR from state airports.

“The least you can expect when you have to go through the security line at the airport is that you don’t suffer the indignity of somebody pushing you out of the way to let the rich person pass you,” Josh Newman, the Democratic lawmaker who authored the bill, told POLITICO.

His Republican colleague, Janet Nguyen, expressed similar sentiments about the bill.

“I do understand the frustration stated in Senator Newman’s bill,” Nguyen, who sits on the transportation committee, said in an email to POLITICO. “It becomes a haves vs. have nots where those who can afford it jump in front of the rest of us. They even cut in front of TSA Pre-boarding pass travelers who have been screened by the TSA.”

(Update (Ed): A later update from Politico added: "After publication, Nguyen’s staff reached out to say she hasn’t taken a formal position on the bill.")

Actually, as a Clear member, I have never skipped in front of TSA pre-check passengers--the opposite was true--and since the lines for Clear are not the same as those for people without it, nobody is pushing you out of the way. That is just rhetoric to make people angry. My wife has Pre-Check and she always flies through security while I still have to go through more rigamarole. 

"It's a basic equity issue when you see people subscribed to a concierge service being escorted in front of people who have waited a long time to get to the front of TSA line," Newman told CBS MoneyWatch. "Everyone is beaten down by the travel experience, and if Clear escorts a customer in front of you and tells TSA, 'Sorry, I have someone better,' it's really frustrating." 

If passed, the bill would bar Clear, a private security clearance company founded in 2010, from airports in California. Clear charges members $189 per year to verify passengers' identities at airports and escort them through security, allowing them to bypass TSA checkpoints. The service is in use at roughly 50 airports across the U.S., as well as at dozens of sports stadiums and other venues.

Actually they escort you TO security, not THROUGH security. It is basically a way for the TSA to deal with known travelers is a very slightly less tedious way. 

Last time I was waiting in line to get to the Clear booths--yes, you still have to wait in lines to get verified biometrically--I had the pleasure of watching people who paid to fly First Class breeze through much faster than I. The airline took care of that, apparently. 

It never occurred to me to ask my legislator to ban First Class, which isn't equitable either. Heck, seating isn't equitable. I fly Spirit most often and pay to upgrade my seat whenever I can. Should that be banned?

No doubt that will be on the agenda, along with Biden's "junk fees." 

California has a huge deficit, is cutting funding for foster care services (you know how liberals feel about kids, after all), but its legislature is bumbling around on issues like this. 

Equity. More important than keeping kids off the streets. Seriously. 

Gavin Newsom slashes funding for foster care program amid California budget crunch https://t.co/ctdZIYTSS2

— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) April 17, 2023

Priorities. You have to have priorities. 

California is turning into a dystopia but legislators there have the time to bitch about people paying to shorten their TSA line experience. 

Government makes you suffer, and must make you suffer equally. Unless you can afford First Class or a private plane. Then you are the Right™ kind of privileged.