Say Anything Blog

Even if we accept that it’s legitimate to tax fuel used in one sort of airplane differently than fuel used in another (which makes about as much sense as taxing fuel different for hybrids than SUV’s), how in the world is the federal government going to enforce this?

Is every single airport - both large and small - now going to have a tax compliance office on hand to determine how the fuel is being used so that it can be taxed accordingly?  Will there be a new enforcement agency created to run sting operations on airports to ensure that they’re taxing the fuel properly?  And how much are these new enforcement measures - along the with extra layers of bureaucracy and private industry compliance expenses the tax implies - going to cost the taxpayers?

And by the way, when a school charters a private plane to fly a marching band down to a national competition is that school going to have to pay this tax too?  Maybe it’s worth remembering that it’s not just rich people who fly in private airplanes.

Do Democrats even think about these policies before they vote for them, or does any policy with a vague “stick it to the rich people” smell about it pass muster for them?