[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12173]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    DISPROVING REPUBLICAN ORTHODOXY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, this week we have just disproven two items of 
Republican orthodoxy, and that is corporations don't pay taxes, only 
individuals pay taxes; and tax cuts create jobs.
  What am I talking about? Well, last Friday the authorization for the 
Federal Aviation Administration expired. So the government is not 
collecting $200 million a week in security fees and other fees that pay 
for the aviation system. It is partially funded by the users of that 
system with ticket taxes and such. That is $200 million a week.
  Now, what's happened since? Well, three airlines, three honest 
airlines--Frontier Airlines, Alaska, and Virgin America--lowered ticket 
prices because the government isn't collecting the taxes. But the other 
airlines, not so much. They actually raised their ticket prices to 
match the taxes, and they're collecting the windfall.
  At the same time, their association, the Air Transport Association, 
is complaining about ticket taxes: But a big chunk of your ticket is 
going to Washington. Well, you can now X out Washington, and you can 
put in United Airlines, Continental Airlines, U.S Airways, Southwest 
Airlines, and Jet Blue, because they're taking the money.
  And guess what? In addition to the consumers getting ripped off here, 
$200 million a week, we have another problem, the second one, tax cuts 
create jobs. Well, we've cut taxes, $200 million a week. That's a lot. 
And guess what? So far, 4,000 government jobs.
  Now, Republicans don't care about government jobs even if they're 
doing some pretty critical stuff. But also, tens of thousands of 
private sector jobs are down the tube because not collecting the taxes 
means all of the airport improvement projects across America funded by 
these fees are grinding to a halt. Critical projects, projects that 
will save lives from runway incursions, control towers, security 
improvements in our airports to defeat terrorist attacks.
  And in the case of my little regional airport on the coast in Oregon, 
their project to install a runway lighting system for instrument 
landing before winter has stopped. We just got jet service in there. 
The airlines say, Look, if we're going to come in here in the 
wintertime, you've got some bad weather. We need that system. Well, if 
this impasse continues, we will not have that system by next winter.
  Now, who is that helping? Who are you guys helping over there with 
these stupid stunts you're pulling here? $200 million a week that the 
government isn't collecting that would pay for these critical projects, 
put tens of thousands of people to work, and now it's a windfall to a 
bunch of airlines.
  But don't worry, the Air Transport Association says, these short-term 
increases, that is by the airlines increasing their ticket prices to 
make up for the taxes going away, these short-term increases benefit 
all stakeholders because it enables the airlines to invest in their 
product and service. Huh? What?
  Let's see. The money used to go for safety and security and other 
essentials; now it's going to the airlines, and they're going to use it 
to improve their product and service. Maybe they'll start serving 
peanuts and soda again on some of these flights. I don't know.
  But this is outrageous. So much for the Republican mantra. You know, 
corporations do pay taxes. And, in this case, now they are getting a 
windfall because the taxes went away. And no, tax cuts don't create 
jobs. Wrong twice.

                          ____________________