FAA SHUTDOWN CONTINUES AS CONGRESS RECESSES

Certainly you have heard that the Federal Aviation Authority has furloughed about 4,000 employees and issued stop work orders on more than 200 airport construction projects across the country. This has been caused by the fact that the Senate failed to act upon the necessary legislation before departing for their August vacation.

Being interested in learning more about this situation I went to the computer to search for various reports and found many, but the best one that explains the situation may be the one from Yahoo News, at this link:

http://news.yahoo.com/faa-shutdown-continue-congress-leaves-205209095.html

I really find it reprehensible for the Senate to recess and permit 4,000 FAA employees to lose their jobs and 200 construction projects to stop putting God knows how many construction workers on the beach. Just consider the fact that the government will also fail to collect about $1 billion in airline ticket taxes. It is my understanding that at issue is disagreement regarding cuts of approximately $16.5 million on air service subsidies.

If I lived in one of the thirteen cities whose air service stands to be cut I would be upset, but we must face the fact that the subsidy is just not sustainable under any reasonable standard of good business practices. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and his fellow Senators who have voters in any of those cities are wasting our tax dollars to protect a few votes from Athens, GA; Morgantown, WV; Glendive, MT; Alamogordo, NM; Ely, NV; Jamestown, NY; Bradford, PA; Hagerstown, MD; Jonesboro, AR; Johnstown, PA; Franklin/Oil City, PA; Lancaster, PA; and Jackson, TN.

Simply put, when the purse is empty there are some things that just no longer make sense, and politicians eventually must do something to stop their wasteful spending of our money. How dare Congress go on vacation and leave unfinished business costing over $1 billion we do not have in the bank! This is a clear example that Congress has absolutely no shame.

COMMANDER GRANGER