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CAGW Issues Spending Cut Alert: Essential Air Service

Dépèche transmise le 20 janvier 2011 par Business Wire

CAGW Issues Spending Cut Alert: Essential Air Service

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued its weekly spending cut alert aimed at eliminating the Essential Air Service (EAS). The Department of Transportation’s EAS was created in the 1970s after airline deregulation to make sure smaller communities did not lose access to air service. Unfortunately, the program has resulted in exorbitant airline subsidies to provide service to communities that would otherwise not be profitable.

“The Essential Air Service spends as much as thousands per passenger in remote areas. . . opponents call the program wasteful spending, noting that much of the money provides service to areas with fewer than 30 passengers a day.”

According to a September 19, 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times, “The Essential Air Service spends as much as thousands per passenger in remote areas. . . opponents call the program wasteful spending, noting that much of the money provides service to areas with fewer than 30 passengers a day.” Among the most absurd recipients of EAS subsidies is the Johnstown, Pennsylvania airport, tirelessly defended by the late Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), but from which just 18 flights leave each week. Johnstown is only two hours east of Pittsburgh International Airport by car.

“The (Non)-Essential Air Service has outlived its usefulness and is another reason why the country has a $14 trillion national debt,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

The elimination of the Essential Air Service program has been among CAGW’s targets for spending cuts and is included in CAGW’s Prime Cuts database, a compendium of 763 waste-cutting recommendations that would save taxpayers $350 billion in the first year and $2.2 trillion over five years. The elimination of this program would save taxpayers $99 million in its first year and $599 million over a five year period.

“While Prime Cuts is not the only answer, it will help reduce the $1.3 trillion deficit, the $14 trillion national debt, and keep more money in the hands of individuals and small businesses that can more directly address the stubborn 9.6 percent jobless rate. Taxpayers now recognize that President Obama and his congressional allies will say anything to sound fiscally rational, but their actions tell a different story. The spendthrifts in Washington, D.C. should read and adopt every recommendation in the 2010 Prime Cuts,” Schatz concluded.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government. The Spending Cut of the Week calls attention to a federal program that is wasteful or duplicative.