Cutting rural air service tough politically

Pennsylvania is among the states that benefits from a federal throwback to the era of regulated air travel: The essential air service program. It subsidizes scheduled service to smaller cities without enough passenger traffic to enable airlines to make money, so carriers are paid to fly each person who uses the service. But try eliminating it, as has been proposed in the new environment of cut-cut-cut the budget, and see what happens. The story points out that Sen. John McCain wants to zreo-out the program, and Sen. Bob Casey is among those who say it should stay.