Does Pete Buttigieg want to raise the retirement age for pilots?
This month, Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, appeared on CNN's This Morning. The discussion centered around the lack of pilots. Secretary Buttigieg was asked if he favored raising the retirement age for pilots.
CNN: "The idea of pilot shortages has been a significant issue. There are a couple of proposals in Capital Hill right now, the FAA authorization bill one to increase the retirement age for pilots I think from 65 to 67. There's also, I think, proposals floating around about easing the number of hours that need to be flown to some degree. Do you support these or are you in favor of them right now?"
Buttigieg: "This is right now in the middle of complex and sensitive negotiations on Capitol Hill but the bottom line I'll say is that anything that emerges needs to put safety first and we can look at a lot of different strategies and policies but we can't do anything that will weaken safety for passengers for airlines. That's always going to be our top priority as the department."
In regards to raising the retirement age for pilots, the question asked was, "Are you in favor of them right now?" While Buttigieg did give an answer, he didn't answer the specific question. He didn't say, "Yes" or "No." People sometimes don't want to give short answers and want to expound. That is fine. However, they still need to answer the specific question. After giving his lengthy answer, Buttigieg could have then said, "Yes, I am in favor of raising the retirement age." Or, he could have said he was not in favor of it. Not answering the specific question always means the person is withholding information.
Another thing we see is that Buttigieg's lengthy answer only consists of two sentences. It should consist of four sentences. Buttigieg used the conjunctions but & and
to join sentences together. These run-on sentences indicate the person is under some stress. This causes him to ramble on.