Jim McTague‘s latest “D.C. Current” column in Barron’s explores the recent deal in Washington, D.C., designed to end government-induced commercial flight delays.
Hell hath no fury like a frequent flier. The collective wrath of this interest group over politically inspired flight delays caused a major miracle on Capitol Hill. Feuding Republicans and Democrats left their ideological trenches and joined hands in no man’s land to pass a corrective measure. This bipartisan legislating occurred so quickly—in less than 24 hours—that to watchers accustomed to gridlock it appeared to be a record.
Life for travelers stuck on the nation’s tarmacs was bad and getting much worse. The airline, hotel, and resort industries were howling that a customer backlash against air travel would hurt their bottom lines and damage the fragile economy. …
… The administration bears responsibility for this fiasco. Senate Democrats in March blocked a Republican amendment to the sequestration legislation that would have allowed the FAA more latitude to cut other parts of its budget, eliminating the need to furlough air-traffic controllers.
The administration wanted to use flight delays to force the GOP into accepting a budget deal that would raise tax rates on the wealthy. President Obama assumed that the traveling public would blame Republicans for refusing to accept the deal. Instead, he discovered that the ire of airline passengers recognizes no political divisions.
The White House, which sneered at the earlier GOP amendment, now expresses a willingness to sign the measure even while denigrating it as “a Band-Aid solution” to the sequester.
