Bush calls for tax hike

George Bush is calling for an increase in fees on airline tickets. I guess he is now a full blown tax and spend liberal Democrat. I must say I prefer tax and spend to borrow and spend, though my favorite idea would be to simply spend less.

• A fee charged to airline travelers to help pay for airport security would more than double for one-way tickets under President George W. Bush's spending proposal for the Homeland Security Department.
  
  Bush's plan calls for boosting the security fee to $5.50 from $2.50 for a one-way airline ticket and from a maximum of $5 to $8 for multiple legs. The increases are expected to generate $1.5 billion.

The airline industry responded:

• The Regional Airline Association says the fee hike comes at a time when some carriers are fighting to survive. It also says the industry is highly taxed already.

George Bush is taking America down a one-way road to a full blown police state. There is absolutely no amount of money which can be spent to protect us 100%. Recently, a man killed 11 people when a train struck his SUV where he left it parked on a railroad track. Tom Ridge says another attack on the US homeland is "inevitable".

The ACLU absolutely refuses to permit the federal government from implementing policies that use overt racial profiling. Private citizens and security firms would not be subject to the same restrictions. Although the airline industry finds itself somewhere between private and public ownership, airlines supply passengers with a service on a voluntary basis.

Americans today are so unaware of the real price tag attached to freedom that many are willingly giving it up in exchange for an illusion of security. Searches and seizures are conducted every day at airports with no probable cause. Laws are being applied to airline passengers which are kept secret from the very people the laws are supposed to protect. Searches of homes and property are being done on a 'sneak and peak' basis, upon authorization by anonymous judges operating in secret courtrooms. Every single day our freedoms are being taken away, and replaced with hollow promises of government provided security.

Individual liberty and total security are mutually exclusive. Unless and until the American people demand to be involved in our own security, power hungry politicians will stand ready to offer their services in exchange for our civil rights and tax money.

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
Barry Goldwater