Last week, Delta Airlines buckled to gun control pressure and began disassociating with the National Rifle Association. In response, the Georgia House and Senate just voted overwhelmingly to eliminate an amendment that would have renewed a $50 million jet fuel tax exemption for the Atlanta-based carrier. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle summarized the sentiment this way: \u201cBusinesses have every legal right to make their own decisions, but the Republican majority in our state legislature also has every right to govern guided by our principles.\u201d\u00a0Many conservatives are cheering the response, but there are problems on both sides of the issue.<\/p>\n
First, the NRA discount was available to members flying Delta to attend the NRA convention. These discounts are not uncommon and are simply offered to attract group business. They don\u2019t reflect any kind of endorsement between airline and organization, but Delta cited \u201cneutrality\u201d in the gun debate when announcing its pullback. It\u2019s obvious that Delta was caving to activist pressure. If Delta is taken at its word, then ALL discounts reflect a social position, and ALL are now subject to scrutiny. The company clearly doesn\u2019t want to go there. Georgia politicians called out the company on this hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Lt. Gov. Cagle is right. He is not challenging Delta\u2019s legal right to pull the NRA discount. What the government gives, it can take away. But I\u2019m uncomfortable with the entire process. Several questions are being overlooked.<\/p>\n
Why was Georgia pondering the transfer of $50 million in tax dollars to Delta in the first place? Is it a proper role of government to subsidize certain companies because they \u201ccreate jobs\u201d or are savvy enough to lobby for the support? These are complicated questions, but the simple answer is no.<\/p>\n
Why must Delta have a policy on social issues unrelated to its business activity? Should we expect airlines to negotiate group discounts only with organizations that meet the approval of political activists? This has gone too far. Delta should not have to pull group discounts in order to remain neutral on social issues.<\/p>\n
Should we expect (or even want) politicians to reward or punish companies on either side of this debate? Absolutely not. Those cheering Georgia lawmakers at the moment have no basis to complain when left-wing politicians in California and New York harass companies in their states.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like what Delta did, but the response should be left to the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, Delta Airlines buckled to gun control pressure and began disassociating with the National Rifle Association. In response, the Georgia House and Senate just voted overwhelmingly to eliminate an amendment that would have renewed a $50 million jet fuel tax exemption for the Atlanta-based carrier. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle summarized the sentiment this way: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}