If a plane falls out of the sky this month - blame Speaker of the House John Boehner and his little buddy, Eric Cantor.

Within hours of passing their job-killing - economy-destroying - Ayn Rand-loving debt-limit deal - Republicans shut down the House of Representatives and flew back home to enjoy a five-week long vacation.

Unfortunately - they left some unfinished businesses behind in Washington - namely - funding the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA.

And less than an hour ago - Senate negotiators also gave up trying to end a stalemate over temporary funding for the FAA until Congress gets back from its recess in the fall.

Coincidentally - those airports Republicans flew back home into yesterday were staffed by 4,000 FAA workers who are now working overtime without pay because Republicans decided to take their war on unions on the road - literally.

At the end of July - Republicans turned a routine funding bill for the FAA into a Trojan horse for their war on unions - inserting restrictive language into the bill that makes it harder for federal air and rail workers to unionize.

Republicans knew the Senate wouldn’t pass a bill that was blatantly anti-union - and President Obama even threatened to veto it - but the Republicans in the house didn’t care - they passed it anyway - welcome to John Boehner and Eric Cantor's world. And now they’re flying home on their campaign donor's private jets before a compromise funding bill WITHOUT anti-union language can be negotiated with the Senate.

So now 4,000 FAA workers are furloughed without pay - over $2.5 billion worth of airport construction projects are on hold - leaving somewhere between 60 and 100,000 mostly-unionized construction workers out of a job.

So much for asking where the jobs are, right?

Not only that - the federal government is losing out on $200 million a week in uncollected taxes on airline tickets as a result of the partial FAA shutdown - and since it’ll be at least another 5 weeks before this is resolved - you can do the math on just how expensive this little Republican vacation is.

So much for caring about deficit reduction.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went on TV this morning to speak out against these antics:

Congress should pass a bill today to send 70,000 construction workers back to work, 4,000 FAA workers back to work. Let's get the FAA running again. This is not the way to run the best and safest aviation system in the world. We shouldn't be doing this.

No, we shouldn't be doing this. This is nuts. But this is politics. This is what happens when Eric Cantor and John Boehner decide to do another hostage-taking. And the hostage they're holding the gun to this time is anybody who flies in America.

President Obama had this to say:

There is another stalemate in Congress right now involving our aviation industry which has stalled airport construction projects all around the country and put the jobs of tens of thousands of construction workers and others at risk because of politics.

It's more than politics - it's actually about the Republican war on working people - a war that Republicans are so hell bent on waging that they’ve been willing to sacrifice the safety of air travel in America to win.

And coincidentally - this modern war on unions started 30 years ago… also at the airports.

In 1981 - the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization - also known as PATCO - went on strike demanding better wages and working conditions.

Rather than listening - President Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers - replacing them with non-union workers - and decertifying the PATCO union altogether.

So today - with union membership in America at half the rate it was when Reagan came into office - back in 1981 - it’s no surprise that Republicans have returned to the airports to finish this grisly job that they began.

And besides plane crashes - job losses - and lost revenue - this war on working people will have a much broader impact for our economy.

As this chart from the Center for American Progress shows - as union membership rates around the country have declined since the 1960’s - so, too, has the middle class’s share of national income…

You can see it right here. The red line is union membership which has declined from around 30% of our working population to a little over 15 - this includes government employees - actually around 7 or 8% for private employees and then this is, the blue line is average income, middle class income.

The Republican war on working people perfectly corresponds with the greatest wealth inequality our nation has seen since the Great Depression.

Here you can see this. The United States down here right above Estonia, next to Mexico and Poland in union membership rates for 2010.

Among the most developed nations in the world - American ranks 14th in union membership - as I said, just above Estonia - and just below Mexico and Poland.

At the top of the list are Finland and Sweden - with union membership around 70 percent - we’re here at 11%.

No wonder IKEA is opening up factories in the United States for cheap labor!

But I guess a dismal union membership rate in America isn't good enough for the Republican union busters and their corporate campaign donors who won’t rest until union membership is at zero - and the Democratic Party is thus defunded.

And these guys are now willing to crash airplanes to get what they want. Sound familiar?

So unless you want America to fall under one-party corporate Republican rule - or unless you want the condition of workers around the nation to continue deteriorating - or unless you want the safety of air travel in America compromised - then you need to give the Republicans a piece of your mind.

But don't bother calling Capitol Hill - they're all laid out by the pool in their home districts right now.

So call their district offices - and tell them to get back to work putting Americans back to work - and recognize the right to unionize in the United States.

And if they don't listen - then they can be the next Americans to lose THEIR jobs - in the 2012 elections.

That's The Big Picture.