You’ve heard it over and over, especially with the current batch of fiscal numskulls in the Tea Party: lowering taxes on big corporations will result in both lower prices and higher employment.
Well, we’ve already seen how corporations like General Electric are not even paying any taxes—so why aren’t they hiring a million people with all that money they saved?
But that’s nothing compared to today’s object lesson in the boundless greed of the corporation. Congress, in its current right-wing-fueled insanity, has not reauthorized the FAA. That’s right, the department that makes sure our planes don’t simply fall out of the air because companies didn’t want to bother maintaining them is now unfunded.
This means that the tax passengers pay on tickets has been suspended. “Oh!” you say, “I should buy a ticket today to save that 10% or so they tack on!”
Did I mention the greed of corporations?
All the major airlines, upon the expiration of this particular tax, raised their ticket prices by the same amount as the tax. So your money is now not going to the FAA to maintain air safety, but into the bottomless pockets of the corporations.
Because of the shutdown, the airlines are not collecting the tax for the airline tickets. However, most of the major carriers now say that they’re actually going to take that money for themselves. And so they’re actually raising their fares a bit.
So if you’re flying any of the major carriers – American, United, Southwest. They’ve all raised their fares. So you won’t notice any difference. [Brian Naylor, NPR]
Just thought I’d mention it. So tell me, again, how cutting taxes helps anyone but the richest?
