Here's the last article I posted. And someone needs to go Googling and pull up the "Feb. 4, 1997, CAPITOL HILL HEARING OF THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE." The subject is: "AIRPORT AND AIRWAY TRUST FUND" and it was chaired by Sen. Wm. Roth (R-De). It's much too long for me to post here, but it has some VERY interesting "explanations" from some guy at Treasury Dept on what happened to that $1.2 billion that disappeared due to an "accounting error." Sen. Graham and others had some good questions and sounded really skeptical.
Someone other than me needs to read it to see if it's possible the the "missing" money went into the airline's pockets (and consequently into the Gore/DNC campaign).
Here's the article from Thread 1:
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Journal of Commerce
February 24, 1997
Monday SPECIAL REPORT; Pg. 4
News & Views
Ira Rosenfeld(snip)
OUR COVER STORY this month is about the threat of terrorism in the sky. The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security this month made its final recommendations to President Clinton.
Among the most controversial is the proposed use of automated passenger profiles to help keep would-be terrorists off commercial airliners.
Many of the proposals already are being implemented at the nation's airlines and airports.
Overall, the commission called for a major upgrade of Federal Aviation Administration safety and security measures in an effort to reduce the rate of airplane accidents by ""a factor of five'' in the next 10 years.
While the risk of dying in a plane crash remains low, a projection by Boeing Co. showed that unless the global accident rate is reduced, an airliner will crash somewhere on Earth nearly every week by 2015.
Mr. Gore said at the commission's final meeting that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will change its aviation programs to focus on safety research.
A cost estimate for implementing all of the committee's recommendations was not immediately available, but the commission did urge that cost not be the only basis for deciding whether to put new safety rules into effect.
Sometimes a safety rule should go ahead even when the benefits cannot be easily measured, the commissioners said.
Automated profiles, bomb-sniffing dogs and better training of security officers were among the commission's earlier recommendations.
Automated profiling involves using computers to, among other things, scan the travel history and possible criminal pasts of passengers to identify potential terrorists. Civil libertarians already are lining up in opposition to the plan.
THE FREE RIDE IS OVER. The House Ways and Means Committee, following the Senate Finance Committee, has passed a bill to reinstate a package of expired aviation taxes.
Money from the tax is used to pay for airport and air traffic control system improvements through the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. The bill extends through Sept. 30 a 10 percent tax on commercial airline tickets, a $6- a-ticket tax on international departures, a 6.25 percent tax on domestic air cargo and excise charges on noncommercial aviation fuel. These taxes bring roughly $20 million daily into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which finances airport modernization.
Several major airlines were hoping to replace the tax with user fees.
The law imposing the tax expired at the end of last year, and officials argue that the fund would shortly run out of money unless Congress acts.
Last week, the Treasury Department conceded it made an accounting error that effectively reduced the trust fund by $1.2 billion.
The bill gives the Treasury Department authority to transfer funds to fix the accounting problem.
Now if only you could fix your own tax errors that easily.(snip)
Where did that "$1.2 billion" go?