It has been over 1000 days since our government has had an approved budget. We have been operating on “continued resolutions” since President Obama has taken office. He has proposed budgets to Congress, including two legislative years were he had a majority of Democrats in both houses of Congress. Still, no approved budget. The first budget he sent to Congress had billions of dollars in “direct user fees” to general aviation as a whole. Thankfully, that first budget was never passed, even though he had a majority on both houses. The next two budgets had nothing in them pertaining to user fees but still didn’t see the light of day. Including, a budget that was so bad, the Senate voted unanimously, 97-0 to reject it. When was the last time you can remember when the Senate voted unanimously on anything? Now we come to the budget for Fiscal Year 2013. This budget was just proposed on February 13, and is a very aviation unfriendly budget. The aviation user fees are back with a vengeance. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. He has done nothing but hit aviation hard at every turn over the last year or so. So, in this years budget he has proposed a fee of $100 per leg on any turbine powered aircraft, this to “pay” for air traffic control services. You may be saying right now, big deal, that doesn’t affect me, I fly a single engine recip. You would be right! That won’t affect you this year but it is that slippery slope that starts the process and then in a year or two it will be your turn. In our country, we have been paying for these air traffic control services in our aviation fuel taxes. This funding has worked fine for years and has always covered the cost of aviation services. These user fees are just another way for the government to “tax” prosperity and create and environment of class envy. The funny thing about this budget and its user fees, is that the President has no intention of it being passed. Why? This budget is just a campaign ploy to say that the Congress is a do nothing Congress and won’t pass his budgets. The fact that this President is in campaign mode should not diswade from fighting these fees. If Congress doesn’t hear from us about these fees, they will include them in future legislation. It is our responsibility to stand up and fight against this overreach of government authority. Let your congressmen know how you feel about this budget. Then in November, let’s vote this President out of office.