The New Budget

[Phurfur 70]

Travelers hit with higher fees under budget deal

 

The bipartisan budget deal struck in Congress last week contains no broad-based tax increases, but it aims to generate billions in new revenue by essentially nickel-and-diming American taxpayers.

People who travel on commercial airliners are some of the hardest hit.

As part of the overall budget deal, Congress increased the passenger security fee, a surcharge added to all airline tickets, by 120 percent. Starting July 1, passengers traveling through American airports will pay $5.60 per one-way trip, up from the current fee of $2.50 per trip.

Last year, the fee generated about $1.8 billion to offset about 20 percent of the Transportation Security Administration's $8 billion budget. With the increase, the fee on travelers will offset about 43 percent of the budget next year, according to U.S. House Budget Committee projections.

But the new fee -- unlike the original -- is not tied directly to the costs of the TSA or other airline security line items in the budget.

Instead, the revenue is headed for the U.S. Treasury to offset restored funding cuts from the sequester.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/16/travelers-will-pay-higher-fees-to-boost-tsa-budget/

 

and that's how they getcha'

[IGotWorms 3,410]

I question the wisdom of this particular fee at a time when airline prices have risen quite a bit and will likely continue to rise.

 

That said, the article does seem somewhat misleading. If TSA costs are not entirely made up by the fee then it hardly matters if the fee goes directly to TSA or not. The government has to expend extra money anyway so at the end of the day it all goes back to the same source.

[Voltaire 4,578]

I don't give a sh*t about that. Actually any revenue increase helps. Pony up.

 

What I don't like about the deal because I wanted the sequester to hit. I'm a big fan especially of cuts the defense budget since the Dems will block any entitlement reforms. But I'm still OK with it being only slightly crappy given the circumstances. At least they won't shut down the government again and aren't going to default.

[MTSkiBum 1,605]

As someone has flown 100,000+ miles 2 years in a row, this doesn't bother me. This tax hits me as hard as anyone.

 

Taxes need to be raised and spending needs to be cut.