You may dispute the bias of my headline, but it is not intended to be a knock against the Grand Old Party as much as a descriptive adjective. The news, however, objectively represents a certain amount of desperation on the part of Senate Republicans in tight races as well as the President. Put simply: let the money flow and we’ll deal with the consequences after the election. That’s risky business.
Republicans Now Want Another Airline Bailout Too
It’s no surprise why Democrats support an additional $25 billion in payroll support for the U.S. airline industry. The unions that back it and have aggressively been courting for it are a core constituency of the Democratic Party. But so-called “small government” Republicans don’t have that same principle to stand on. That’s not to say this isn’t the wrong move as much as a contradiction. But it’s hard to blame Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), locked into a tough relection battle, for not wanting thousands of American Airlines employees in Dallas and Fort Worth to lose their jobs a month before the election.
Gary Leff nicely lays out why bailouts were suspect during the first round and are even more suspect now. While that is my view as well, I still struggle internally because I have so many friends and acquaintances in the airline industry. I don’t want to see them lose their careers and I remain hopeful that once widespread, rapid testing is available or people decide enough is enough (which I am not advocating for, mind you, but I tend to think will occur before a vaccine is introduced), people will flock back to the skies…perhaps in a fit of pent-up revenge travel.
The payroll extension would go until March at a cost of $25 billion. That seems rather excessive to me since so many airline employees have already agreed to undergo voluntary furloughs. Furthermore, let’s face it. Most experts predict 2019 levels of demand will not return until 2024. Even when travel resumes, fewer planes, fewer pilots, fewer mechanics, fewer flight attendants, and fewer ground staff will be needed.
That really hurts me. But as one flight attendant wrote on Twitter:
I can appreciate the advocacy and even applaud it to some degree, but enough is enough. Airline workers need to start making plans for the October gut punch. Many would like to hear a narrative from you on how to go about preparing for this. (1/4) https://t.co/0MggY6L0IM
— Flight Attendant X ✈️ (@flghtattendantx) July 30, 2020
In closing…
I don’t have the luxury of turning down a potential job opportunity now in the hopes that I can enjoy being a flight attendant for only a few more months. What if there are even less employment opportunities in March? What then, Sara?
— Flight Attendant X ✈️ (@flghtattendantx) July 30, 2020
CONCLUSION
As much as I want to support the wonderful people in the airline industry, I am having a lot of trouble reconciling this new bailout. As a political scientist, the sudden Republican embrace of this seems like the sort of compromise that independents and Republicans will roll their eyes at and Democrats will just chide for being too little, too late.
Do you support a second airline bailout?
@ Mattbew — Simply disgusting. Shame on everyone involved. I wish there was another planet I could move to.
This isn’t desperation relating to bolstering re-election prospects so much as a scorched-earth policy in full acknowledgment that they’re going to get flogged: so “let’s gather all the snouts at the trough”, look after our mates/cronies and let the next guy deal with the consequences.
Not even in the darkest days of Reagan was there a level of self-interest as transparent as with this bunch of GOP shysters…and national interests be damned…
Should be fewer pilots/ flight attendants/ planes/ etc. learn the difference between less and fewer. It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard reading that part of your piece.
Thanks Jason. Fixed.
looks great, and overall I think you make a convincing argument.
What I don’t support is bailing out poorly run, bankrupt DEMOCRAT cities and states such as NY, Chicago/Illinois, Cali, etc., etc. run by desperate democrat cronies
You mean the states that lead the way in GDP, share of taxes paid to the government, the ones that attract talent from all over the globe and drive innovation? Yes, those are the Democratic states. As a past resident of all three you listed, damn proud of them!
Let’s not forget Donor States. Not a whole lot of “Red” states on that list. In fact, for a group of folks so hell bent on others not receiving government “handouts” and on the government , the Red states sure as hell love to take from the Feds. Hell, if it weren’t for the “poorly run, bankrupt DEMOCRAT cities and states”, the Red states would be in even more worse off than they already are. Lotta short-term *and* long-term memory loss in the Red states.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/#red-vs-blue
https://rockinst.org/blog/who-are-the-givers-the-northeast-subsidizes-federal-spending/
Preach brother AR, don’t bring your guns to a knife fight 🙂
New York state puts more money into our economy than it takes out. On the other hand, there are conservative states like Kentucky that rely on federal funding.
Yes, Chicago has been mismanaged but I wouldn’t necessarily blame the Democratic party for that as much as I would blame the lack of competition and low voter turnout. In both conservative and liberal areas where we see either low voter turnout in local elections or a dominant political leaning, we also tend to see politicians who are corrupt or just not good since they don’t face much competition (or in other words, a threat to their job). There are exceptions of course.
Skip the name calling and make a point backed by evidence.
Seriously you are blaming Republicans! And I thought you were intelligent and well spoken. If you are trying to single out one party, let’s talk about the $3 TRILLION dollar Democrats proposal. It’s people like you who are ruining this country with your “media” posts. Terrible title to this post, thought you were better than this.
Why are Republicans not standing on principle here? No one is disputing how much Democrats want to spend.
The optics are almost worse than the money itself…for months airline employees have been courted by impending furloughs, buyouts, early retirements, etc. and now if this second bailout goes through won’t they feel deceived by all those who told them they must act now? The madness has to end. They should’ve made the original bailout provisions go through 12/31 to avoid election politics.
Matthew, you have too many words in the post title – let me fix it for you
DESPERATE REPUBLICANS
(that’s all you need…2018 was a blue wave, 2020 is shaping up to be a blue tsunami!)
I wish John Cornyn was in a tough reelection battle, but even if Texas goes blue, I think his senate seat is fairly safe.
Talk about lighting money on fire and throwing it out the window! It’s almost as egregious as the Rethuglican tax scam which did absolutely nothing but line the pockets of wealthy donors as well as significantly increase the debt, which they claim to be concerned about. What a joke.