Frank Lautenberg: “I will soon offer an amendment to remove the airline passenger tax increase from this budget. It is fundamentally unfair…”

“I will soon offer an amendment to remove the airline passenger tax increase from this budget. It is fundamentally unfair for the President to raise taxes on everyday families as he doles out massive tax cuts to the wealthy. Hidden among the thousands of pages in this legislation is a proposal to double the minimum amount that airline passengers pay as a security tax. President Bush wants to increase this tax from $2.50 per flight to $5 per flight. That is a 100-percent tax increase. The impact on a family of four traveling roundtrip on nonstop flights is illustrated by the chart that we have here. An increase in security tax for a family of four traveling roundtrip on nonstop flights, typically, if it is $20 now, is going to be $40 obviously. That is quite a burden. The traveling public is already too heavily taxed. Air travelers pay an enormous amount of Federal taxes on every airline ticket--nearly 20 percent of the base fare price now. For example, the tax on the average domestic roundtrip flight of $230 is $45. That is a tax rate of almost 20 percent. Air travelers are taxed every time they turn around. They pay the Federal excise tax--on top of the Federal segment tax, on top of the passenger facility charge, on top of the security tax. Now the President wants to double the security tax. To make matters worse, this tax increase will hit families the hardest.…”