Time blog on "ludicrous subsidies" for rural airports

No waiting here

It's nice that one of Time magazine's blogs is weighing in on "ludicrous subsidies" for rural airports.

I've repeatedly criticized Republicans for holding the global economy hostage to try to force President Obama to adopt their right-wing fiscal agenda. For consistency’s sake, I suppose I should criticize Republican Congressman John Mica for holding a routine extension of the Federal Aviation Administration’s funding hostage to try to insert some union-bashing language.

But I have to admit, I like Mica’s approach to hostage-taking. He's passed an FAA extension that specifically omits ludicrous subsidies for rural airports in Ely, Nev., Morgantown, W. Va., and Glendive, Mont. Which just happen to be located in the home states of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. Who just happen to be the three Democrats he's been fighting with over the FAA.

The seven-year-old legislation funding the FAA has been extended 20 times without incident, and this would have been the 21st if Republicans hadn't gotten upset about a National Mediation Board ruling that made it easier for airline and railroad workers to unionize. In April, the Republican-controlled House passed a new long-term funding bill for the FAA that included a provision overturning the Board’s ruling. Senate Democrats had passed their own FAA bill in February, but the labor measure became a sticking point—not only for a long-term bill, but for a short-term extension to keep the agency going during negotiations.

The current reauthorization expires at midnight on Friday. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has warned that if an extension doesn’t pass before then, 4,000 FAA employees will be furloughed–safety inspectors and air-traffic controllers would be exempt–and a $2.5 billion airport improvement program will be shut down. So Mica finally agreed to an extension at current funding levels, without the labor rider, but with two no-brainer reforms to the "Essential Air Service" program that subsidizes small rural airports. One would limit the subsidies to airports located at least 90 miles from a medium-sized airport, and the other would cap the subsidies at $1,000 per passenger. Mica said the reforms would eliminate 13 airports from the program, saving $16.6 million a year.

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