"The FAA ... will stop collecting Federal taxes on tickets" 

Yet another Republican plan to end tax revenue and ensure the country defaults on its debt.

Obstruct(check),Blame(check),Protect the rich(check). I wonder if the folks who helped the baggers get to Washington really counted to this agenda.

How will the Controllers keep working if they are not funded "i.e. paid" I guess now the Republicans thinks they should work for nothing. If I were them, I would say come Sunday morning all planes should be on the ground because there won't be anybody to guide them. I wonder what thoes corprate jetters will think of the idiots in cougress that did this.

Has anyone thought about the possibility of putting the FAA into the hands of private contractors? Lease the rights to operate aviation and only have a limited number of government employees to oversee the contractors with definite rules of operation. The same could be said for NASA. Neither one should be the government's responsibility in these times of limited revenue. So, here are 2 agencies that can be scrapped.

What world does the right live in? Not the one I inhabit. I can put a 40 cent stamp on a piece of mail and it goes anywhere I want it to, remarkably fast. I can spend 3 hours at the social security office setting up my benefits, and begin receiving them, on exactly the same day every month for the rest of my life. I call a policeman, he comes. Fire as well. Tens of thousands of miles of roadway are maintained. The list of all that is easily accomplished by our government is endless.

Then you consider a private concern. If my name is on a list, it usually takes about 8 calls to get it removed. In my life, I spend more time on hold than I do playing with my grandkids. If you need a service person, you need to turn yourself inside out to accomodate their schedule. Large corporationg have teams of lawyers who's only job is to weight the cost of making something safe enough to use with the cost of paying off those who are injured by an items use.

I'll take my air travel overseen by the government, thank you very much.

You certainly have no idea what the Federal Aviation Administration does. The cost of preparing air traffic controllers for the difficult job of separating aircraft is a very expensive project. No greedy "private" company will take on this heavy burden or the cost.  Even the so called private run towers get their personnel from the FAA or militaary where your tax dollars have already trained them.  And just where do you think these so called private companies get their money from, You the American public.  There is no Santa Claus handing out funds.

Like so many other Americans who seem to be teetering on the edge of the cliff, and almost willing to jump if I could insure the GOP would be pulled down with me. Their fanaticism really has me frightened for the furure of this country.

I was dismayed when President Obama offered the whole farm to the GOP... and amazed that they walked away from the deal. Then it happened again. And again. I now think that is why I continue to support President Obama and believe he may yet demonstrate himself to be one of the greatest Presidents of the last century. It seems President Obama understood from the beginning what I am only just now starting to grasp.

To the GOP, the issue is not jobs. It is not the economy. It is not taxes or a balanced budget. It is all about destroying the Obama Presidency. Period. No matter what the President offers, the GOP will reject it. a chaotic economy is what the GOP wants, pure and simple, because in their minds that is what will destroy the Obama Presidency.

In the end, it may be that the senate may be able to cobble together a deal for a short term extension of the debt ceiling and most of the cuts the GOP wants in the budget. The GOP will delay until the last minute, and try and jam a suped up version of "cut, cap and balance" bill and dare the President to veto it. He signs it, and he has caved in on the issues his base care most about. He chosses to veto it, and "he" is the one who gets blamed for the country defaulting on its debt. Win-win for the GOP.

Or is it? President Obama has given, and given. Each time, like spoiled children, the GOP has walked away from the deal... even when they have been handed all they asked for, and more.

The President has repeatedly stated that he does not want to take the 14th Amendment option. He is doing, and has done, all that any reasonable person can do and clearly does not want to turn to that last resort.

I do, however feel convinced that the President has been giving the GOP all the rope it needed to hang itself in the eyes of public opinion. While Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and (Grover Norquist) all the rest are grinning, knowing the got that sumbich, thew President is going to dig in his heels, invoke the Constitution and preserve the full faith and credit of the United States. Only in that split second will it be driven home to the GOP that they will have lost and theat they had been suckered by a President they hated way to much to ever realize was smarter than all of them.

Our President will not let the nation go into default. Nor will he have given away the farm to save the day. Yeah, I'm nervous. I think he was not bluffing when he looked Eric Cantor in the eye and let him know not to call what he might think was a bluff.

I trust the President.