President Obama used oil barons and corporate jet owners to anchor his opposition to Republicans' demands on taxes in his press conference on Wednesday. His indictment against corporate jet owners in particular was repeated so often, six times, that it certainly rankled Republicans who saw it as a clear case of class warfare. Full Story »
Posted by Jon Mitchell
This concise, nicely-written piece provides clarification of some of President Obama's comments from yesterday's press conference; specifically, those pertaining to Obama's opposition to special tax breaks for owners of corporate jets. Seems the Heritage Foundation went to bat for the corporate jet owners, accusing the Obama administration of wanting to eliminate tax breaks for these folks that the Obama administration actually had included in the stimulus package of 2009. Turns out this is not true; Obama is aiming at tax breaks that have been on the books for these folks since 1987. Thanks to this article, we know now that owners of corporate jets enjoy several tax breaks, some of which have been in place literally for decades. This puts some teeth in Obama's proposal: times are tough and these corporate yahoos and their congressional Republican toadies can't find it within themselves to give even a little back for the sake of fixing the economy. Shame on the bunch of 'em.
Why do owners of corporate jets need special tax breaks in the first place?