As for some federal funding, although I don't know or have the exact numbers, a serious fraction of each airline ticket sold by a US airline consists of federal taxes.
I have no idea about the taxes and fees paid by "freightdog" airlines such as Fedex, which ordered the A-380. The US airlines are being choked by HUGE, exorbitant federal taxes and fees. Fedex's main base in Memphis has at least one runway which already accomodates their TN A.N.G. C-5 Galaxy and sometimes Kallita 747s (jingle bells...).
The politicians here constantly change their stories just before elections (even Hillary Clinton, who voted to go to war in Iraq [uh oh
-the secret is out!], was recently booed by many of her more radical supporters at a rally), but the GOP and Democratic parties often resemble each other. They differ a bit on platforms, but many fail to realize that many US voters are somewhat in the middle. Although history by now, let's not try to forget many possible forebears of Congressman Mica's feisty mentality (right or wrong-at least now): the more courageous, thousands of rednecks who never returned to their temporary beds in England (1942-44), Arnhem or frozen Bastogne foxholes etc. Various books claim that very many were volunteers. About two years ago I rode a rented bicycle/fiets from the main railway station in Maastricht to the resting places of thousands of soldiers a few miles away at Margraten (NL), just by coincidence, and also visited Omaha Beach (we just came back June 1), etc.
As a comparison, quiet murmors of protectionist tactics among 'Euro' or British/Irish politicians began (or don't exist) when the Euro currency was born, and the agricultural trade talks (even the unlettered colonials can sometimes find illegally exported copies of "the Economist" magazine in airport giftshops etc)?
It might be just a small bit of political irony here, that German intelligence agents were 'allegedly' on the scene when the invasion started, in Baghdad, Irak, and coordinated with certain US forces. This created some embarassment for certain Politiker zu Hause (at home), among the 'greener' elements of the coalition. The [former?] Aussenminister/Foreign Minister Joschke Fischer 'allegedly' helped to severely beat up a German policeman when he was a mischievous younger lad in a street demonstration, and seriously burn another officer by throwing a Molotov cocktail. Some US politicians sound crazier, (or are) because most on Pprune can read their original words in a language which they understand.
Many politicians, at least in the US, appear to survive by typical lies, forgotten promises, pledges and 'heartfelt sympathies'-or gross distortions, similar characteristics to ( a Chief Financial Officer's) hours of forgetfulness and omissions about basic airline financial situations and outright lies in US bankruptcy court in Manhattan, as practiced by a few upper executives in the US airline industry, in order to justify what is, to the long-term committed airline staff, a sometimes grotesquely obscene and highly over-bloated (the 'mother' of all understatements) contract for a 'golden parachute'. Its certainly not Their fault if the Board of Directors hires the incompetent business-world equivalent of retards (to closely paraphrase a newspaper editorial at a crewbase info wall), who somehow have no people skills, for a highly labor-intensive business. The point?
Certain politicians, airline CFOs...I see no motivation among them for accuracy and the truth.
Will the Paris International Airshow in August be a fertile opportunity for unanticipated modesty and humility?
Especially for Noel, Dominique and maybe for Jacque. Rumours of sharply increased (taxpayer-funded?) subsidies prevail, for a mysterious, suspected government bail-out. Isn't that it, or was it the debates among the highly unusual dual Franco-German management structure, which motivated an insider to quietly 'leak' the minutes from the EADS meeting to the "Wall Street Journal"? But then again, maybe not. As in one of the commercials (on the Internet) for "Unpimp Your Auto"..."oh, snap!" as quoted by Mr. Peter Stormare.
To paraphrase from one of those commercials, maybe sales of some (non fbw) aircraft will "look like they could fly". And sky-high prices for A-320/319 replacement parts might come down? I have sympathy for the very gouged taxpayers in much of western Europe and Britain, and doubt that British taxes will allow any small citizen rebate after this mess receives just one massive cash infusion. At least British and French taxes are not also paying to clean up and support eastern Germany.