Related to that, from the Heritage Foundation: Obama Blasts Private Jet Tax Breaks Created by His Own Stimulus
...the corporate jet tax break to which Obama was referring – called “accelerated depreciation,” and a popular Democratic foil of late – was created by his own stimulus package.Better yet, the AP lauded the tax break back in 2009:
Proponents of the tax break lauded it as a means to spur economic activity by encouraging purchases of large manufactured goods (planes). So the president’s statement today – and his call to repeal that tax break generally – is either a tacit admission that the stimulus included projects that did not, in fact, stimulate the economy, or an attempt to “soak the rich” without regard for the policy’s effects on the economy.
Just a few months after lawmakers scolded auto executives for flying to Washington in private jets, Congress approved a tax break in the stimulus package to help businesses buy their own planes.More on that from National Review, Publius Forum, Weasel Zippers, RedState, Sister Toldjah, Michelle Malkin, NewsBusters and Pajamas Media. As for breakdown of the presser (I haven't seen it due to fireworks which is ironically not much different than what happened at the presser as Obama threw a bunch of bombs out there), this one is good: Levin Breaks Down Obama’s Press Conference
The incentive — first used to help plane makers recover from the 2001 terror attacks — sharply reduces the up front tax bill for companies who buy assets like business planes.
And from William Jacobson via memeorandum: Obama press conference - false choices and demagoguery
I watched Obama’s press conference today, and he is a wonder to behold. He is a relentless demagogue who plays Americans against Americans and sets up false choices as part of a class warfare agenda.Read the whole thing.
Here’s a false choice (my rough transcription) which jumped out at me during the Q&A:“Republican leaders need to ask their consituents if they are willing to sacrifice the safety of their children for a tax break for a corporate jet owner.”This was typical throughout the press conference. He’s the only reasonable one, the only one who cares about people, the only one trying hard to reach a “balanced” debt deal, and so on and so on, the facts be damned. Of course, if it seems to some that he’s been detached, it’s only because he’s been so busy working on the Taliban, and bin Laden, and the Greece crisis.
He had the audacity to say with a straight face that his administration is trying to remove burdensome regulations, when in fact Obamacare and Dodd-Frank alone impose vast regulations (most of which have not been written yet, which freezes business investment) on virtually every area of the economy.
Not only does he not get it, he is ideologically incapable of getting it. He views the economy as a zero sum game, a point I have made before.
This reminds me of the failed luxury tax on yachts years ago, which devasted the shipbuilding industry in Rhode Island leading to substantial layoffs; the choice was not between yacht owners and children, but between job creating industries or not.
