It’s hard to say which is more disturbing — Congress’ failure to fund Federal Aviation Administration operations before it left town for a month, or the greed of the airlines that raised their fares to rake in the cash the federal government isn’t getting because its airline-ticket tax expired when Congress didn’t pass the FAA funding bill.

Start with Congress. After lawmakers waited until the 11th hour and 59th minute to pass a debt-ceiling deal and avoid self-inflicted economic calamity, Americans might have thought the dysfunctional institution was charting a new, more responsible course.

Not so. A fight over union rights for transportation workers, and federal subsidies for small-town airline service, has produced a miniature version of the debt-ceiling debacle. This particular political gridlock will put major parts of the nation’s aviation agency out of business for at least a month, if not longer.

Four thousand FAA employees not considered essential to safety have been furloughed. Airport inspectors are working without pay. Some 200 airport construction projects involving billions of dollars have been suspended, possibly affecting as many as 70,000 workers.

So much for the notion that in Congress, protecting jobs is job one.

This fiasco also adds to the deficit that Congress just spent so much time agonizing about. Up to $1 billion in federal airline-ticket taxes, including funds for airport security, will go uncollected.

The expiring taxes created a void that most airlines were all too happy to fill. Of course, they couldn’t just let ticket prices go down. Only Spirit, Hawaiian, and Alaska Airlines didn’t raise fares.

And don’t be fooled by stories saying some airlines are refunding the expired taxes. Those refunds come from advance sales of tickets for travel actually taken after Congress let the taxes lapse. Only the most brazen company would assert the right to keep customer payments for taxes it was not authorized to collect.

There are legitimate grounds for the disagreement in Congress over union organizing rights and small-town airline subsidies. But FAA employees, airport construction projects, and small airports shouldn’t be held hostage in the fight.

Parts of this fight have been going on for years. Since 2007, Congress has passed 20 different temporary funding extensions for the FAA. This time, though, the fighting continued, unresolved, until the lawmakers left town.

Such irresponsible brinkmanship is simply unacceptable. The nation was appalled to see it during the fight over the debt ceiling, but some in Congress apparently didn’t get the message.

The obstructionists are apparently hoping only FAA personnel will notice, since shutting down this one small part of government won’t blow up the national economy.

A cynic might be excused for thinking this is just one more example of how some in Congress place all of their focus on attacking government while letting corporate America, including airlines, run off with the bank.