On the recordJuly 30, 2013
The Essential Air Service program is an expensive government handout. It is, in effect, welfare for airplanes. Page 9 of the bill expressly states that the per passenger subsidy extended to rural communities--and by the way, we're not talking about Hawaii and Alaska here; we're talking about places like Muscle Shoals-- for a flight that would not otherwise exist is capped at $500. I think that's too high. I don't know why we should be, in effect, paying people $500 to fly to Muscle Shoals. I don't see the sense of that at a time when we're cutting food stamps and cutting block grants to communities. I think it's a poor way to spend taxpayer funds. My amendment would reduce this subsidy to a still-very-high $250 per passenger because $500 per passenger is simply outrageous. If passengers don't want to pay for aviation routes, then they simply shouldn't exist. For 500 bucks per passenger, we could literally rent a limousine for every single person aboard each flight and drive them to the single nearest commercial airport. I understand the need for rural services in necessary aspects of life, like Postal Services, telephones, and even the Internet; but I cannot understand the need to subsidize regular airline flights that would otherwise not exist to the tune of $500 per passenger. The bill before us today would cut community development funds in half--to the lowest level since the program began in 1975.…
