173 Million Dollars for...

The legislation approved by a House Appropriations subcommittee would give $173 million in the upcoming budget year to the Essential Air Service, which provides subsidies to small airlines to fly unprofitable routes

http://fe15.story.media.ac4.yahoo.com/news/story/maple/us/ap/20090714/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_spending

“Simply put, the Essential Air Service program was a promise made to rural America, and a promise that must be kept,” the senators wrote.

WHO THE FUCK CARES! Drive your asses to a large city and fly from there.

Citys like Vernal, Utah and Scottsbluff, Neb… Vernal = 7000 people, scottsbluff = 14000 people.

Christ scotts bluff to Denver = 3 hour drive… Vernal to salt lake… = 3 hour drive. Seems awfully stupid to me

Waste-o-money

Fuck hicks, maybe you shouldn’t live in the middle of fucking no where

We should also think about cutting the maintenance costs of maintaining their roads too.

I’m pretty sure this program has been around for decades. $173 million to help smaller towns all across America have some air service actually isn’t that much if you think about how many small communities exist and how many this program will help.

You want small towns to be able to fly all over America. I’d like to see the money spent by rural Americans on trips using this program that otherwise would not go on any.

Heres an idea though, make THEM pay if they wanna leave their small town.

I’d rather see them utilize trains and public transportation.

/\ WORD

And what if none of those exist in their area?

I’m mean I’m all for that idea but not all small towns have access to trains.

Again it helps America connect and the economy to grow if people can move easily.

I think you missed the point I was trying to make. I won’t bother repeating myself.

Is it more cost efficient to build and staff an airport than it is to put down some railroad tracks? A city bus is a cheaper option.

What are we really talking about here, a small rural airport that probably has nothing more than a turbo prop vs a rail station?

And I don’t think they are going out and building a bunch of airports. This program has been around for a while.

has anyone ever flown into one of these little podunk airports before? It’s usually a building smaller than a grocery store. They have one or two security lines, and 2 “terminals”(which are basically just waiting areas). When your plane arrives(tiny little things), they unload, then you walk out on the runway and climb up into the plane.

The last small airport I was at had MAYBE 15 workers in the whole place.

I don’t think a small airport is really any different than a train station.