As everyone reading this probably already knew, long-term funding of the FAA has been a political football since the last time that it expired in 2007. Well, they finally passed a bill… and in the process stuck it to various Democratic interest groups:
- The labor unions were probably most badly hit, given that they had some privileges rolled back on them. The rules were changed in 2010 by the Obama administration to make it much easier for unions to organize (essentially, they stopped treating not-voting as ‘no’ votes). The House bill called for reversing that provision entirely; they instead compromised so that unions would need to have majority support (instead of 35%) in order to call for an vote to organize. Big Labor shills are predictably livid about that.
- No new taxes on jet fuel. Greenies will not be happy.
- The House version funded 60 billion over four years; the Senate version funded 70 billion over two. The final version was 64 billion over four. Government bureaucrats hardest hit.
The Right didn’t get everything that they wanted out of this – most notably, there was an air subsidy program that got only trimmed back, instead of removed – but you can’t win them all. Besides, there’s a bunch of Lefties out there right now wondering why the heck the Democrats couldn’t have passed a dang bill when they had a filibuster-proof majority in 2009/2010. Well, at least that answer is simple: Democratic legislators are cowards!
Aren’t you glad you asked?
Aren’t you glad you asked?
.
No.