- #1
turbo
Gold Member
- 3,165
- 56
The US Congress is again being held up by radicals. Once again, a normally routine procedure is being held up on ideological grounds by the far right. The GOP says that the sticking point is $16M/year in subsidies for air travel to rural communities, but the truth is that we are on track to lose $1.2 Billion this month alone because the GOP has refused to fund the FAA and allow the airlines to collect taxes on air-fare. The sticking point is whether we allow labor in the airlines industry to vote up-or-down on labor issues or whether every uncast vote is counted as a "No" (current practice, contrary to labor law in other sectors). For the sake of killing organized labor in the airline industry, the GOP is willing to forgo $1.2 Billion of revenue this month alone.
Where are the adults in this country? For that matter, where are the adults in the media who are not hammering this travesty night after night on the network news? There have been mentions here and there about the tens of thousands of people put out of work because of the halted projects, but I haven't seen any responsible reporting about the real costs of this shutdown.
http://news.yahoo.com/more-faa-shutdown-air-subsidies-071241612.html
Where are the adults in this country? For that matter, where are the adults in the media who are not hammering this travesty night after night on the network news? There have been mentions here and there about the tens of thousands of people put out of work because of the halted projects, but I haven't seen any responsible reporting about the real costs of this shutdown.
On the surface, the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration is about whether to cut $16 million in air service subsidies, a pretty small amount in this town. Underneath are layers upon layers of political gamesmanship that, at its heart, is about whether Democrats or Republicans get to call the shots in Congress.
The immediate price is high. Already, 4,000 FAA employees have been furloughed, more than 200 construction projects have been halted and an estimated 70,000 other private-sector workers affected. Air traffic controllers and safety inspectors have remained on the job because the agency still has money from another pool of funds to pay them.
The government has been losing about $30 million a day in uncollected airline ticket taxes since the shutdown began on July 23. If it's not resolved until after Congress returns from its August recess in early September, lost revenue will tally about $1.2 billion.
http://news.yahoo.com/more-faa-shutdown-air-subsidies-071241612.html
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