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Too Much Pork: FAA Bill Dies Gristly Death

A giant, steaming tar baby of an aviation-funding bill, backed by the Democrats, was successfully and rightfully squashed yesterday afternoon by Senate Republicans.

The original purpose of the bill was to overhaul the Federal Aviation Administration, improve airline safety, and modernize our aging and overburdened air-traffic-control network.

The stupid Democrats, however, tried to backdoor in a whole smorgasbord of greasy, bubbling pork chops paid for by creepy-crawly tax increases and accounting subterfuge.

The FAA bill, among other things, would have

• Diverted $5 billion in Treasury funds to cover a shortfall in gasoline taxes for highway construction
• Allocated $1.6 billion for New York City transit projects
• Given taxpayer dollars to the pension programs of American and Continental Airlines, two private companies
• Issued tax-credit bonds for rail construction
• Allowed New York City to keep federal taxes from city and state workers for capital projects
• Increased business-jet fuel taxes to 36 cents a gallon from 21.8 cents
• Doubled the oil-spill tax to 10 cents a barrel
• Collected back taxes from firms incorporating abroad

What does any of this nonsense have to do with the FAA, the air traffic control system, or aviation in general?

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) on the Senate floor:

If those projects can stand on their own, let’s vote on those projects alone. To try to put non-aviation taxes on an aviation bill is going to bring this bill down.

The stupid Democrats. The nation desperately needs a smart way forward on the incompetent, disorganized, dishonest mess that is the FAA. The Democrats could have done a lot of good by providing such a bill.

But they couldn’t help themselves. They had to add these riff-raff side projects, tax increases, and financial shenanigans into the bill, none of which had anything to do with the intended purpose of the bill.

This also really proves how terrible the Democrats are at legislative tactics and maneuvering.

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