Laying Bare the Tax Cut Myth

By Fuzzyone

So, I'm back from my vacation which included a vacation from much of the news. I have to say not much seems to have changed. If I can think of anything new to say about the continued dance between Obama and the Republicans I will, but frankly it seems like the needle is stuck in the same song.

However, a minor casualty of partisan fighting this week was the FAA. Congress failed to pass an extension of its authority to collect certain taxes on airfares. Some thought this might lead to lower fares for consumers. After all, isn't part of the reason Republican's push for corporate tax cuts that it will make things cheaper? Nope, the airlines just raised fares by the amount of the tax they no longer collect. Extra hypocritical is Virgina America which ran this add in the days leading up to the shutdown:

But once the law lapsed they raised their fares too (though after "holding out all weekend").

So, just as the rich put their tax cuts in their pockets corporations put their tax cuts, in the pockets of the rich. That money will either go to shareholders or, more likely corporate executives. So consumers get nothing, the FAA loses $30 million a day, 4,000 FAA employees get furloughed and a bunch of construction workers who were doing things like building runways get laid off. Yes, tax cuts are the solution for all economic problems.