If you’re not rich, you may not be familiar with Bar Harbor. It’s a summer playground for New England’s wealthy. The filthy rich fly there private. The “merely wealthy” fly there on your tab, dear taxpayer, and Pete Buttigieg suggests he wants to keep that subsidy in place.
It’s called Essential Air Services. It was created in 1978 as Congress deregulated airlines to guarantee commercial flights kept going to far-flung places. As with any federal program, that original intention is now corrupted by waste and exploitation.
Some subsidized flights are empty or nearly empty because they connect two cities more easily connected by car or nearby large airports. Some subsidized flights are on luxury jets.
Whatever the virtues of Essential Air Services, it’s obviously bloated and functions as welfare for the rich. And Buttigieg supports it, just as he supports any big government programs that support or are supported by Big Business and the rich.
Buttigieg, President Biden’s nominee for secretary of transportation, had his first Senate hearing today, and he pledged his support for EAS, for the Jones Act, and sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in expressing openness to a gas-tax hike on drivers.
Buttigieg, as a presidential candidate, endorsed a long-term extension of EAS. In his confirmation hearing, he praised EAS as a “pillar” of the U.S. air travel system.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has long lobbied to hike gas taxes in order to expand the pool of money spent on infrastructure. Biden promised not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000, but a gas tax would obviously violate that pledge. Nevertheless, Buttigieg said he was open to hiking the gas tax.
Most indefensibly, Buttigieg said he supports the Jones Act. The Jones Act is corporate welfare for the U.S. shipping industry that impoverishes the people of Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The 1920 law makes it illegal to ship anything between U.S. ports except on U.S.-flagged ships staffed mostly with U.S. crews.
The well-connected, the biggest lobbying powerhouses, and the wealthy jet setters will all benefit from Buttigieg’s transportation policy.
