As you know, Republicans shut down the FAA and left town for a vacation of more than a month. House Republicans want to cut a little less than $17 million annually from the FAA budget, all of which is funding for rural airports in states served by Democratic senators. Rural airports in Republican states were exempted from the cuts. Democrats oppose the cuts targeted at their states.

As a result of the shutdown,

* 24,000 construction workers are out of work,

* the jobs of another 46,000 workers are threatened,

* the federal government is losing more tax revenue per day than the annual savings proposed by Republicans, and the government will not get that money back when Republicans finally allow the FAA to resume work,

* if Republicans allow the shutdown to continue until they return from vacation in September, the federal government will lose more than $1 billion from taxes,

* airlines have increased their ticket prices by the amount of the taxes they would have collected if the FAA were still operational, and the airlines are keeping that windfall, and

* FAA safety inspectors are continuing to work without pay and are charging their considerable travel and hotel costs to their personal credit cards, hoping that Congress will reimburse them.

Democrats are calling on Republican to return from vacation to help the construction workers and courageous safety inspectors. If Republicans are concerned about construction workers and government employees, they haven't said so.

Republican also do not appear to be concerned that the airlines are practically stealing from their customers. When asked about it yesterday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that's just what businesses do when their taxes are cut.

The next time Republicans say that tax cuts for the wealthy will benefit the little guy, remind them of what they said about the tax cut airlines are enjoying during this long Congressional vacation.

Sources:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2011-08-03-airport-construction_n.htm

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/03/287345/cantor-defend-airlines-taxes-faa/