bocastephen

Story here

I am speechless at the negligent incompetence shown by the president with this budget as a whole, not the just the issue of the security fee.

However, it appears the hike is now in writing, not speculation.

Bipartisan criticism, however, might hopefully sink the budget, and spare us and our carriers from the cost burden of the higher fees. They can't even prove all or even any of it would be spent on security improvements, nor can they really account for the fees that have been collected since this nonsense was first created years ago. Disgraceful conduct!

humanoid94

This is insane! It is already at the point where a "cheap" ticket with a connection has nearly a 50% tax rate. (100 fare basis and 50 dollars in misc. taxes).

The worst part is that 99% of this is posturing to make people feel "safe."

Spiff

Comrade El Presidente is one hell of a Tax-and-$pendocrat.

This guy makes Hugo Chavez look like a fiscal conservative. Shame on you, GWB.

Aggie Girl

this is what I've been thinking for the past few days, as stories come out about the budget. Incompetence is a good word, unfortunately.

mikeef

Only 99%? What happened to the other 1%?

Mike

FliesWay2Much

Fortunately, this is only the first shot in a long battle, as most of my fellow FTers understand very well. Now's the time to bring it to the attention of your Representative and Senators. Unfortunately, since (on paper) this makes money for the government, There are only three ways to get this defeated:

1. Make the argument that Congress needs to punish the DHS and TSA for their squandering of the taxpayers' dollars by cutting their budget -- not increasing it. They did this a couple of years ago when they set an upper ceiling on the number of screeners that was far below the body count that the TSA requested.

2. Show quantitatively that the increases in fees will result in lost airline revenue pushing some airlines further towards the brink. I would think the majors have models plotting lost passengers and dollars against the amount of security tax.

3. Add a really controversial amendment to the authorization or appropriations bill and lobby to have the Senate filibuster. If there's an FY07 continuing resolution, they can't impose the new tax structure. Adding language to break FEMA away from DHS and re-creating it as a separate agency would really give this bill the visibility it needs.

I suspect megadollars of Katrina and FEMA fixes are contained in this budget line item, so I predict the increased fee will just slip right on through unless at least one of the above happens.

GUWonder

I suspect the "not-public" part of the budget has grown too. Will any of that go toward spying on Americans' domestic travel habits too? [I am not going to be surprised by the answer(s) to that.] Any of that to bribe foreign government officials and employees of companies, domestic and international, in the travel sector too? (After all, why would FCPA get in the way if FISA doesn't.)

In any event, these security surcharges are becoming ridiculous. Between insecurity charges and fuel surcharges and the like, award tickets are becoming less and less valuable. And when we are forced to take more convoluted routes in order to use our miles, remember to thank the Executive-submitted budget for our "less free" travel too.

bocastephen

Actually, the budget contained no provisions for Katrina aid. It was a glaring omission that critics in both parties pounced on. While the $5 security fee will be turned into 'grey money' and disappear into various spending programs, this week NO Mayor Nagin (ok, not the most stable mable around) begin soliciting aid from foreign countries to help rebuild his city.

This is on the heels of the revelation that none other than Hugo Chavez sent discounted subsidized oil to the northeast (via Citgo) to help heat the homes of the poor who could not afford the higher cost of heating oil. Now if that isn't a slap in the face to the Administration, I don't know what is.

So no aid for Katrina, no subsidies to stabilize the cost of heating oil for the poor, extreme cutbacks in medicare/medicaid, no control over the alternative minimum tax which is about to attack the pocket books of middle class Americans - all the while pouring billions and billions into an unpopular war, tax cuts for dividends, more tax breaks for his oil cronies and less disclosure on how our money is being spent. Now don't get my wrong...I am no liberal...I want my tax breaks on dividends. If he stopped wasting money elsewhere, he could give me my breaks and avoid screwing the rest of the country at the same time.

The problem with getting Congress to remove the Security Fee increase from the budget it two-fold. The fee is not line-itemed for DHS. Any attempt to curtail security spending in an election year is just begging for an attack from one's opponent (party affiliation notwithstanding).

We should just be thankful he didn't hike it to $10 per segment....for your protection, of course

FliesWay2Much

Thanks for the details -- I hadn't read the submittal, except for my own department's...