The FAA is the new Wisconsin.

Keep an eye on Wisconsin next Tuesday. Six of the union-busting Republican incumbent state senators will be running in recall elections, as well as two incumbent Democratic state senators. (One incumbent Democratic state senator has already won his recall election.) A switch of three seats from Republican to Democratic will put the state senate in Democratic control, which is why the Republicans are furiously passing as much legislation as they can before next Tuesday.

And welcome to Wisconsin on the national level, other wise known as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mess. I'm sure you have seen reports on the network news programs concerning the 74,000 people thrown out of work when airport improvement projects were halted by the failure of Congress to pass legislation authorizing the continued authority of the FAA. 

You may also have heard that the FAA's authority to collect the 10% tax on airline tickets has also lapsed, and that airlines have simply been pocketing the money rather than reducing fares by 10%. This amounts to a loss of federal revenue of about $30 million each day. (So much for the argument that if taxes are reduced, costs to consumers will also go down.)

And, you may have heard that the House passed the legislation to reauthorize the FAA, but the senate went on vacation--along with the rest of the Congress--after the debt-ceiling debacle. True, but as the late Paul Harvey used to say, here's the "rest of the story."

When the Republican-controlled house passed the FAA legislation, they added a nice little wrinkle in an attempt to make it much more difficult for the airline workers to unionize, or to keep their unions. The new legislation would count all those not voting in an election to certify ( or re-certify) union representation as "no" votes. Imagine trying to pass a school budget if all those eligible to vote, but not voting, were counted as "no" votes! The bald-faced unfairness of this is why the Senate would not pass the FAA legislation.

Apparently, the public was a little upset that 74,000 people were being thrown out of work when we have high unemployment. They were also a bit miffed about giving away $30 million/day in tax revenue to the airlines. One would guess that when members of Congress left the looney-bin of Washington, where everybody is convinced that the deficit is the biggest problem we face, and arrived in their home districts, where polls show that many more people are concerned about putting 25 million people back to work and getting the economy on its feet, they got an earful from their constituents. A deal was quickly agreed to which, as I understand it from my perspective in the Cable TV-free wilds of the Adirondack woods, puts those 74,000 people back to work and starts collecting taxes again. I believe that the anti-union fight has been put off until another day.

But keep your eyes and ears open. Maybe someday all the people who don't bother to vote in national elections will be counted as Republican votes!