Stephen Moore, the sharp-eyed economist and former Trump advisor, just dropped a truth bomb on CNN’s Laura Coates Live Thursday night, warning that a government bailout or outright purchase of the struggling Spirit Airlines—framed as a privatization in reverse—would be a disastrously bad idea. Cutting through the partial clip that’s circulating, Moore nailed it: airlines aren’t always the cash cows they’re cracked up to be, with razor-thin margins battered by fuel costs, labor woes, and fickle demand. Spirit’s woes, from massive debt to post-pandemic route cuts, scream classic market failure, not a cry for Uncle Sam to swoop in with taxpayer dollars. This isn’t just about cheap fares vanishing; it’s a flashing red warning light for creeping government overreach in free enterprise.
Zoom out, and Moore’s critique hits harder when you connect the dots to the 2A world. We’ve seen this playbook before—failing industries propped up by federal lifelines, from auto giants in 2008 to green energy flops today, morphing into politicized behemoths where D.C. calls the shots. Imagine Spirit nationalized: routes prioritized for political allies, DEI mandates bloating costs, and suddenly, armed federal air marshals or TSA overlords get even more unchecked power over who flies with what. For gun owners, this is existential—air travel is already a gauntlet of red-flag confiscations and sensitive areas where your carry rights evaporate. A government-owned airline? That’s a fast track to mandatory disarmament checkpoints, flight manifests shared with ATF databases, and subsidized virtue-signaling that sidelines 2A-supporting passengers. It’s the same logic that turned Amtrak into a money pit: once the state owns it, efficiency dies, and control flourishes.
The implications scream for 2A vigilance: every bailout erodes the private sector buffer that keeps government tentacles at bay. Spirit’s potential taxpayer rescue isn’t isolated—it’s a symptom of Biden-era industrial policy where too big to fail now includes budget carriers. Pro-2A folks should rally behind Moore’s call to let markets work: bankruptcy restructures better than bailouts, preserving competition without inviting federal busybodies. If Spirit folds or merges privately (JetBlue’s still in play), we dodge a precedent that could nationalize ammo makers or gun shops next time a crisis hits. Stay frosty, patriots—privatization in reverse is socialism’s Trojan horse, and our rights are always in the crosshairs.
