[Tic Tac Took]

Comrade Obama is taking a page out of the Marxism 101 textbook and is trying to incite a class war. He's become obsessed with private jets all of a sudden. He has the biggest and baddest private jet in the world. Most of his learjet-liberal friends own them. They say 100,000 people are employed building, flying and servicing them. But he hates them because 'the rich' like to fly on them.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...3-billion.html

Corporate Jet Tax Gets Six Obama Mentions, $3 Billion Estimate

By Richard Rubin and Andrew Zajac - Jun 30, 2011 4:30 PM MT .

President Barack Obama’s proposal to end a tax break for corporate jet owners, a repeated refrain in his news conference yesterday, would achieve less than one-tenth of 1 percent of his target for reducing the federal deficit.

Such a change would put $3 billion into the Treasury over a decade, said two congressional aides familiar with the proposal. Democrats want to require companies that use jets for business purposes to write off the cost over seven years, instead of the five years allowed under current law, said a congressional aide and a White House aide. Airplanes used for charter or commercial flights already must be depreciated over seven years.

Obama mentioned the corporate jet break six times, criticizing Republicans’ unwillingness to include tax increases in legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling. Republicans are pressing for spending cuts in the measure, which must be passed before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department projects that the U.S. will no longer be able to meet its debt obligations.

“It would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that the tax break for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we’re not willing to come to the table and get a deal done,” Obama said during the White House news conference.

It would take much more than eliminating a break for corporate jets to complete the deal. The $3 billion proposal would generate 0.075 percent of the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that Obama is seeking through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.

[thargeagsaf]

Here's a list of things that were partially or completely de-funded in the last CR that could be re-funded with that $3 billion. Mix and match, and you can decide whether the owners of corporate jets need the money more than these programs:


• Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies -$30M
• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy -$899M
• Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability -$49M
• Nuclear Energy -$169M
• Fossil Energy Research -$31M
• Clean Coal Technology -$18M
• Strategic Petroleum Reserve -$15M
• Energy Information Administration -$34M
• Office of Science -$1.1B
• Power Marketing Administrations -$52M
• Department of Treasury -$268M
• Internal Revenue Service -$593M
• Treasury Forfeiture Fund -$338M
• GSA Federal Buildings Fund -$1.7B
• Office of National Drug Control Policy -$69M
• International Trade Administration -$93M
• Economic Development Assistance -$16M
• Minority Business Development Agency -$2M
• National Institute of Standards and Technology -$186M
• NOAA -$336M
• National Drug Intelligence Center -$11M
• Law Enforcement Wireless Communications -$52M
• US Marshals Service -$10M
• FBI -$74M
• State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance -$256M
• Juvenile Justice -$2.3M
• Community Policing Services -$600M
• NASA -$379M
• NSF -$139M
• Legal Services Corporation -$75M
• EPA -$1.6B
• Food Safety and Inspection Services -$53M
• Farm Service Agency -$201M
• Agriculture Research -$246M
• Natural Resource Conservation Service -$46M
• Rural Development Programs -$237M
• WIC -$758M
• International Food Aid grants -$544M
• FDA -$220M
• Land and Water Conservation Fund -$348M
• National Archives and Record Service -$20M
• DOE Loan Guarantee Authority -$1.4B
• EPA ENERGY STAR -$7.4M
• EPA GHG Reporting Registry -$9M
• USGS -$27M
• EPA Cap and Trade Technical Assistance -$5M
• EPA State and Local Air Quality Management -$25M
• Fish and Wildlife Service -$72M
• Smithsonian -$7.3M
• National Park Service -$51M
• Clean Water State Revolving Fund -$700M
• Drinking Water State Revolving Fund -$250M
• EPA Brownfields -$48M
• Forest Service -$38M
• National Endowment for the Arts -$6M
• National Endowment for the Humanities -$6M
• Job Training Programs -$2B
• Community Health Centers -$1.3B
• Maternal and Child Health Block Grants -$210M
• Family Planning -$327M
• Poison Control Centers -$27M
• CDC -$755M
• NIH -$1B
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services -$96M
• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program Contingency fund -$400M
• Community Services Block Grant -$405M
• High Speed Rail -$1B
• FAA Next Gen -$234M
• Amtrak -$224M
• HUD Community Development Fund -$530M

[Peabelilt]

I love how the conservative sheep all play the class warfare card whenever anyone proposes higher taxes on anything connected to the ultra-rich.......as if the shift in wealth that has taken place over the last 30 years isn't class warfare, effectively over (and won) by those same wealthy people and corporations.

[Immusaatmonna]

Stop screwing around with the debt ceiling and raise the damn thing. As the fictional Pres. Josiah Bartlet was quoted (via Twitter) "If you insist on using the debt ceiling as a weapon, at least have the decency not to point it at me."

[heltduell]

I love how the conservative sheep all play the class warfare card whenever anyone proposes higher taxes on anything connected to the ultra-rich.......as if the shift in wealth that has taken place over the last 30 years isn't class warfare, effectively over (and won) by those same wealthy people and corporations.

Great point. The class warfare kicked into gear with Reagan's budget, which began funneling cash flow via tax cuts and massive debt into the top 1% of the wealthiest people in the country.