When the FAA shut down and the airlines raised their fares so that they, not passengers, were getting the tax dollars the government couldn't collect, I suggested that Republicans would be happy with having engineered a situation in which what should have been government revenue went straight to corporations. Well, Eric Cantor sure doesn't seem sad about it.
CANTOR: And what airlines have done is have stepped in and said, well, if we’re not going to pay that money to the federal government, we’re going to keep it towards our own bottom line. And I guess that’s what business does.
At ThinkProgress, Alex Seitz-Wald points out that:
Oddly, Cantor seems to be unintentionally making the progressive argument about corporate taxes here. While conservatives generally argue that cutting business tax rates will lead to companies passing on savings to consumers and hiring more employees, progressives argue that corporations will just pocket much of these savings.
Some Republicans have given lip service to the notion that the airlines should either lower ticket prices or turn the money over to the government, but it hasn't been what you'd call a priority for them. Cantor's words—and his pleased little smirk—better reflect the attitude congressional Republicans take to a crisis that's depriving the government of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and putting as many as 75,000 people out of work.