President Donald Trump has promised additional aid to struggling U.S. airlines as huge job cuts loom ahead of the November presidential election.
Trump Promises More Aid To Airlines
Speaking on his way to Kenosha, Wisconsin yesterday, Trump offered promises but not specifics:
“We’ll be helping the airlines. You have to help the airlines, it’s a tough business always is. Airlines are a tough business in good times and we are about ready to get back to good times.”
Payroll support from the CARES Act expires on September 30, 2020 and U.S. airlines are already preparing to lay off thousands of employees.
For weeks, Trump has dangled the promise that airlines will receive a second bailout via additional payroll support, but negotiations over the specifics of such a package have stalemated. Furthermore, it is Congress, not the White House, that holds the power of the purse. Nevertheless, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also recently hinted at an Executive Order that would bypass Congress and provide relief directly to airlines.
The idea of a “clean” extension for six months seems troubling considering how many employees have already retired, accepted voluntary furloughs, or agreed to early separation packages. While U.S. airlines plan to lay off up to 75,000 employees this autumn, $25 billion in additional payroll support works out to $333,333.33 per worker for six months!
> Read More: Airline CEO “Shatters Myths” About Government Aid To Airlines (No, He Actually Doesn’t)
image: White House
In boom times, airlines are strictly business; in times of woe, they mysteriously morph into an essential public service. The one constant: the overpaid sleazebags running them, clone-like, peas in a pod, equally determined to get their grasping fingers on public money …and aided and abetted in that pursuit by a whole host of swamp-dwellers in the form of industry lobbyists , cronies and supine politicians.
All the while talking about jobs, but for the most part the real interest is in stock prices.
Paying lip-service to human needs, in reality they serve mammon…
You’re spot on Paolo! I wish the help would be directly to affected people in all professions rather than favoring certain industries.
I totally agree – it’s surprising how socialism suddenly becomes popular when there is a chance of a big handout that will benefit a big company….. For years airlines have squeezed customers into germ infested, low pressure, low humidity metal tubes and treated them like SLC (Self Loading Cattle). Suggest they sell bonds, issue stock, modify executive benefits etc using the business model they have followed for years.
The question is: Will he help the airline that flew the plane “almost completely loaded with thugs” wearing “dark uniforms” [and] headed to the Republican National Convention to do “big damage.” ?
I’m not opposed to some kind of support, but support to keep employees that are not needed for at least the next 6 months is ridiculous. This is a slap in the face to the 30M+ who have lost their jobs, but weren’t deemed essential enough like airline workers are. I’m sure you can agree that you have run into many airline workers in your travels that were by no definition essential. It’s better for the economy if unproductive workers are deployed elsewhere. The only way for that to happen is to let them go.
From the beginning, I was for a temporary reduction or elimination of payroll tax for all employees, not just airline workers, which would allow employers to keep more employees on, without any favoritism by industry. But what’s done is done, and it’s probably too late for that approach, so I’d say temporary suspension of payroll tax for airline employees is about the most I could support.
You’re a communist!!!!!!! Believe in the free market!!!!!! Why should tax money be given to capitalists? The market will correct itself!!!!
Giving aid to individuals = socialism
Giving aid to companies = capitalism at its finest.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans is always exposed. Yet since they are marching towards a dictatorship their supporters will cheer them on.