Time to end the Essential Air Service program

[CrackRabbit]

most of them are not the big carriers. Great lakes air and sky west serve many out here. That's sorta the point. There is no money to be made without tickets like I had to pay to go to get home to see my grandmother on her death bed. $1300 from Williston ND to Michigan with a layover in MSP. that was even through our corp. travel center! I could not even get a ticket through normal consumer channels. That is the service we would see if there was no eas. right now its around 600 to fly to michigan out of Rock Springs.

Fern: you would feel different about such a small government expenditure if you lived out here.

and people do have to live out here, as i stated, to support the quality of life of everyone in this country.

I hate to be an ass about this, but trying to get last minute tickets is going to cost you an arm and leg no matter if you live near a larger airport or not.
Maybe the EAS shouldn't be eliminated but reevaluated and scaled back to help provide service that truly are in the middle of nowhere instead of an hour from a larger airport.

 

[BoberFett]

Why do Democrats want to encourage people to live in podunk towns by subsidizing their air travel? Think of the fuel wasted by you hicks living in the middle of nowhere and flying around Do you want to destroy the planet?

 

[BoberFett]

By virtue of not living in a shithole of a country one should be entitled to certain benefits. In contrast, eliminating these benefits turns the area you live in into a shithole. So how is supposed to magically happen when you're living in a shithole?

I have no doubt there is probably
1. a lot of waste in the program
2. that some of it is intentional padding finagled by the airline co.'s
but arguing to eliminate programs like these based on some ideology over practicality is absurd. Maybe we wouldn't need this program at all if we had an extensive high speed rail system in this country, but there's your ideology stopping that too. One of government's most vital job is instituting infrastructure. It's the main catalyst for every activity that goes on in the country, especially the free market.

Wait, are you saying that high speed rail would connect every little shithole town in the country?