More GOP hostage-taking with political demands

[RandomGuy]

This time the FAA is in their sights, as they essentially demand more union-busting for political/ideological gain. This will cost the government revenue, and increase the deficit/debt, by the way.

FAA shutdown would cost govt $200 million a week


WASHINGTON (AP) — Portions of the Federal Aviation Administration will shut down at midnight — putting nearly 4,000 people temporarily out of work and allowing airline passengers to buy tickets without taxes — unless Congress can resolve a partisan dispute over legislation to temporarily extend the agency's operating authority.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday the government will lose about $200 million a week in airline ticket taxes and $2.5 billion in airport construction projects will come to a halt if the Federal Aviation Administration is forced to shut down.

A partial shutdown looks increasingly likely because Congress hasn't been able to agree on legislation to extend the FAA's operating authority, which expires at midnight Friday. Whatever happens in Washington, airlines will still operate as normal and air traffic controllers would remain on the job.

But airlines would no longer have authority to collect a federal tax on tickets, which could be a temporary financial boon for passengers. About 4,000 FAA workers, whose jobs are funded with ticket tax revenues would be furloughed, LaHood told reporters at a news conference. The FAA employs more than 47,000 people overall.

The main obstacle is a provision sought by House Republicans and the airline industry that would make it more difficult for airline and railroad workers to unionize. House Republicans also want to eliminate government subsidies for airline service to 13 rural airports, a $16 million provision that Senate Democrats say is unacceptable. The union provision was added to a long-term FAA funding bill earlier this year, but negotiations on that bill have stalled. Without long-term legislation, an extension bill is necessary to keep the agency operating.

"This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world," LaHood said. "Congress needs to do its work."

(remainder of article here) (http://news.yahoo.com/faa-shutdown-cost-govt-200-million-week-185410194.html)

Yet another partisan shitbag move that leaves me shaking my head in disbelief at the lengths that the extremists in the GOP will go to.

[DarrinS]

A partial shutdown looks increasingly likely because Congress hasn't been able to agree on legislation to extend the FAA's operating authority, which expires at midnight Friday.




Long-term authority for the FAA expired in 2007. Unable to agree on long-term funding legislation for the agency, Congress has kept the FAA operating through a series of 20 short-term extension bills.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Democrat Man is on it today!

Where are the 19 previous threads? :lol
Or 5999 posts?

[boutons_deux]

America is fucked, and unfuckable.

And nobody has any evidence that it's not fucked and is unfuckable.

This is the lamentable fiasco resulting from the Repug party, well before the tea bagging astro-turfers, whose fundamental principle is "Government Is The Problem". The VRWC-funded tea baggers simply extend the concept out to the anarchic, nihilistic fringe.

The Dems have no dicks, but the Repug have no dicks AND no spines when they let themselves be controlled by Limbaugh, BecKKK, tea baggers, Norquist, and other extremists.

[ChumpDumper]

Democrat Man is on it today!

Where are the 19 previous threads? :lol
Or 5999 posts?Non sequitur man is on it the last couple of days.

[RandomGuy]

[quotes that I probably think place blame on Democrats or make Republicans in Congress look less like the douchebags they are, but am too lazy to actually spell this out and failed to realize they don't really mean what I think they do]

:lmao

[DarrinS]

When's the last time the Dems produced a budget? It's important and relates directly to the OP.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Professor Lambeau is never wrong, Darrin. You'll learn

[boutons_deux]

"When's the last time the Dems produced a budget"

Barry's "runaway,out-of-control-spending" first budget was smaller than dubya's last budget, so GFY.

When was the last time a Repug president paid down the national debt rather multiplied it? St Ronnie, Pappy shrub, dubya? they ALL increased the national debt.

[RandomGuy]

Professor Lambeau is never wrong, Darrin. You'll learn

The good professor makes mistakes, like anyone. :p:

I do however, try to keep that to a minimum, unlike some.

[baseline bum]

Why do you call mainstream Republican policies extremist?

[boutons_deux]

http://www.truthdig.com/images/eartothegrounduploads/AP100415137593-300.jpg

There is a deep-rooted wrongheadedness about the Republicans as they drag the country toward fiscal disaster. Those afflicted with this harmful thinking range from tea party extremists like Michele Bachmann to pundits such as Peggy Noonan.

The irrationality of Bachmann and the rest of the conservative House Republicans is well known from daily news accounts of their refusal to negotiate on the debt limit. Digging into the politicians’ lesser reported speeches and reading the pundit musings give an even clearer picture of the conservative Republican mind-set.

In discussing the unjust country rhapsodized by her old boss Ronald Reagan, Noonan talks about the “culture” of the new and old Americas.

She writes: “ … everyone over 50 in America feels a certain cultural longing now. They hear the new culture out of the radio, the TV, the billboard, the movie, the talk show. It is so violent, so sexualized, so politicized, so rough. They miss the old America they were born into, 50 to 70 years ago. And they fear, deep down, that this new culture, the one their children live in, isn’t going to make it. Because it is, in essence, an assaultive culture, from the pop music coming out of the rental car radio to the TSA agent with her hands on your kids’ buttocks. We are increasingly strangers here, and we fear for the future.”

While she doesn’t wear a colonial costume or brandish an inflammatory poster, Noonan is expressing, in polite language, the guts of the tea party message.

Part of the tea party’s anger and Noonan’s distress is that we’re not the old America of their dreams.

They believe the United States should not be led by Barack Obama and that we should not accept the change and progress that his election represented. This belief goes beyond arguments over the debt and the deficit. It is deep and irreconcilable. It is the reason why the right won’t compromise.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/republican_goofery_isnt_limited_to_the_tea_party_2 0110721/

====

conservative = conserve and "progress" the (wealthy) status quo = regress the country back to 1920s or even to Robber Baron era.

[boutons_deux]

FAA Prepares to Furlough 4,000 Workers

The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to partially shut down its operations and furlough up to 4,000 employees at midnight Friday after Congress could not agree on details in the legislation to extend the agency’s authority.

When the FAA’s authority expires, airlines will no longer be allowed to collect taxes on ticket sales. So while travelers could save about 20 percent on the price of airline tickets, about $200 million in tax revenue could be lost every week until the issue is resolved. —BF

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/print/faa_prepares_to_furlough_4000_workers_20110722/

[ChumpDumper]

We're saving money and cutting taxes!

[RandomGuy]

We dont' need any unnecessary government red tape like requiring pilots to, you know, be competant enough to get a license, or bother inspecting airplanes.

That just costs everybody.

Damn "feel good" liberal expenses.

[Wild Cobra]

I wonder how many people will book advance ticked during these tax holidays!