Larry Elder makes a persuasive case that the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath did not harm the airline industry to the point where a taxpayer bailout was needed. Cost-conscious airlines like Southwest, Jet Blue and AirTran not only rode out the economic downturn, but actually expanded their fleets and their service. Corporate giants like United, however, believe their economic woes are due to external circumstances beyond their control and not due to flawed business models, and thus, like homeless people, line up at the FedGov soup kitchen looking for a handout.
The Bush administration, to its credit, turned down United's latest bailout request. Much as I'd like to believe that the administration suddenly got religion regarding constitutional limits of power, a far more plausible explanation is that either (a) they saw it as too financially risky, or (b) they were looking to avoid some election-year bad PR (i.e., those eeeevil Republicans and their corporate welfare). I tend toward explanation (a), since this administration does appear to make a lot of its spending decisions based on cost/benefit analyses, but I'm not willing to rule out explanation (b) completely.
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