TEA: Misplaced blame on no vote

In reference to Mr. Jerry Shriner's letter "Tea: Thanks for nothing, folks," I did some checking on this vote and the following information is from an article "Airline Taxes Lapse But Airlines Continue To Collect Tax" by Charlie McCrudden (ACCA Vice President for Government Relations).

"When Congress failed to pass a bill last week extending the authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airlines were no longer required to collect a host of taxes added to a passenger's ticket price. These are the taxes and fees you see on your ticket receipt: a 7.5 percent airline ticket tax; a 7.5 percent tax on the sale of frequent-flyer miles; a $3.70 per segment fee; a $16.30 international arrival/departure tax; and an $8.20 departure tax for flights between Alaska and Hawaii and the U.S. mainland.

But instead of lowering fares by not collecting the ticket tax, all but two airlines (Alaska Airlines and Spirit Airlines) kept their fares the same and pocketed the tax. According to Consumers Union, the government is losing and the airlines are pocketing $200 million a week."

I don't believe that the Tea Party is to blame for a non-Congress vote.

S. OLSON

Hayden