Do This, Don't Do That

The New York Times this morning published an article titled "Travelers' Fee Can Help Fight Disease." It described a UN program that has raised $1.2 billion over the past three years for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB through a $2 optional fee added to airline tickets sold by many prominent travel sites. Currently active in 15 countries and accounting for 7 to 10 percent of airline tickets sold, the program is now going global.

Compare that to another fee, imposed by federal lawmakers, that was the subject of a front page USA Today story last Thursday. In this case, the fee is not optional, amounts to 15% of the cost of the flight, and subsidizes 2,834 "general aviation" airports with no scheduled passnger flights - handling mostly recreational planes and corporate jets,along with frequent trips by members of Congress, according to the story. Funding was $1 billion in 2007, and funded 95% of the capital costs for the airports, as well as kicking in substantial percentages of operating costs. And a kicker: airports who receive this federal money cannot close for 20 years.

I'm sure the USA Today story could have provided better balance - at least according to the howls of outrage on the paper's web-site. But in the "do this, don't do that" category, there's no contest.