Monday, September 24, 2007

We're from the government and we're here to help.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070920/ap_on_go_co/air_travel

But is Congress really helping us?

So we’ve had some media attention paid to those that have suffered extraordinary delays and lived horror stories while traveling by air.

What happens when corporations are stepping on us little people? Congress helps out of course. How do they help? By raising taxes on those evil corporations … because those fees won’t get passed on to the little people. The best part of all is that Congress helps us out and gets to keep the money. You should be happy to pay that extra money, it’s the government’s way of helping.

Sometimes I’d like a little less help.

From the article:

The measure would increase the jet fuel tax for noncommercial planes from 21.8 cents per gallon to 30.7 cents and the aviation gasoline tax from 19.3 cents to 24.1 cents. It would also raise the cap on fees airports can charge passengers for capital improvements from $4.50 a flight to $7.

But lawmakers, among the nation's legions of frequent fliers, were particularly interested in aspects of the bill dealing with airport congestion and delays.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., whose committee signed off on the tax measures, said there wasn't anyone from either party who "didn't believe that this was our time to tell these aviation people that we passengers were suffering in such a way that we were going to express it through the tax system. People on the tarmac for three, four, five hours. Flights being canceled, weather conditions we never heard of, overcrowding."

We're going to express our suffering by paying even higher prices and giving that extra money to Congress ... so take that!!!