Submitted by FirstFlightMike on October 10, 2012.

No.

No, I am not going to come to the defense of jet owners and operators.

I won’t write letters for the NBAA or AOPA on this issue, and I won’t give a single dime to either organization’s PAC to help corporations and wealthy individuals pay fewer taxes.

The hypocrisy in arguments for tax breaks for jets knows no bounds. Here is my favorite… ‘the President’s disparaging remarks in the wake of the automakers use of their business jets when going to Congress for a bailout, caused the smoking hole that became jet aircraft sales.’ While in the next breath they claim that these jets are ‘serious business tools’ that make money for the companies that use them.

So let me understand…. These tools are vital to companies’ bottom lines and yet a little public scrutiny made the companies sell off their jets and run from them in droves? That’s the argument?

I call ‘bullshit’ on that logic. There is no way that a vital, revenue earning tool would be sold off because automakers embarrassed themselves. Business jets are largely toys, perqs, vanities, and luxury vehicles and THAT’S why companies sold them off and stopped buying new units.

Oh, and the crappy economy created by the failed economic policies of deregulation, vulture capitalism, and tax policies that brought us to a point where US corporations enjoy the lowest tax rates ever, and among the lowest effective tax rates in the industrialized world.

The economically and politically powerful have titled the game horrifying in their favor and are not paying their fair share of taxes. They enjoy the benefits of this wonderful country while expecting other people to ***pay*** for those benefits the US has to offer.

I stand with the President on this one, and so should all Americans committed to a fair tax policy that gives the middle class a chance to purse the American dream.

Bottom line: if a business jet is truly an important tool for a company, they can afford to pay the taxes on the item rather than pushing that obligation onto middle earning Americans.

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Submitted by Mark in Idaho on October 09, 2012.

And, Obama's administration including Michele, Reid and Pelosi when she was Speaker have been big users of private jet transportation to all parts of the world. It sounds like only government leaders deserve private jet transportation. They get their rides paid for in full by the taxpayers. Corporate jets get paid for by shareholders and get minimal tax benefits, especially when compare to the full load Obama charges to the taxpayers.

It is no different than Obama slamming Big Oil for government subsidies. Oil Depletion allowances and deductions are not corporate welfare.

Both the Business Aviation industry and Big Oil need to explain the validity of their tax deductions and credits.

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Submitted by flyright on October 16, 2012.

The corporate jet market is a small one at best. Pumping billions into subsidies for it won't make a significant impact to the aviation industry if the demand is no longer there.

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Submitted by ejborg on October 23, 2012.

My god, do any of you really believe even half of this pompous crap? Let me clue you in on something: the "job-creators" in this country touting the economic benefits of their corporate jets do create wealth...for themselves...and jobs as an expendable by-product. If this is the cornerstone of GA in this country, then we have built upon sand. We will be gone with the next tide.

Two anecdotal "for-instances": I once flew an owner in his Premier from Ontario, CA, to LAX so he and his simpering wife could make the red-eye to Chicago. We held on the tarmac for over 30 minutes for a clearance. The total flight took well over an hour, in which time he could've hired a limo and made it on time. (One hopes he uses better sense in the business that created the wealth that bought him the airplane.) I never heard whether they made the flight...and frankly I couldn't care less. I told my co-pilot that I would've been happy to drive them to LAX in my own car for half what they probably wrote off on their taxes for that boondoggle. "Let them eat cake," indeed!

A few months later, I stood on the ramp at Las Vegas, surrounded by nearly a billion-dollars-worth of heavy iron, watching Challenger 600's departing with maybe 2 golfers on board. I'm pretty sure they weren't there to create jobs for the middle class, except maybe for their caddies. (And please don't bore me with the conjecture that they might have closed a billion-dollar deal on the golf course.) Any jobs they created fell from their pockets as they pulled their ill-gotten gains from their pockets. It sickened me, by the way, to see how my once-professional colleagues fell all over themselves (and each other) for tips--which they euphemistically referred to as "love," as in "did you get any 'love' today?" I never took a tip, and I never starved for the lack of it. When it becomes acceptable to toss an extra "50" at my doctor, or my dentist, or my lawyer (altho' I've paid them plenty up front), I'll reconsider...maybe. Until then, why should I degrade myself and my profession for the "love" of a whore?

Until then I say, let the "Sun Kings" pay their taxes like everyone else, and at the same rate as the rest of us--including the enormous sums they earn from investments (taxed at sometimes less than half the rate the rest of us pay). GA survival--especially for the little guy who spends his love on his little 2-seater--means absolutely nothing to either side of this debate. To paraphrase the original author of "class warfare": "The rich ye will always have among thee." And they can well afford to pay full-freight. They lose more than that in their pile carpets at night when they pull off their trousers.

We're on our own. This election is about a lot more than whether or not Cessna gets to build its next Citation. And anyone who thinks the proud new owner of that Citation cares a fig for the worker that put him/her there needs a lot more "love" than will ever fall from their pockets, believe me.

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Submitted by flying_Mike on October 26, 2012.

So tired of hearing of this wealth distribution "bull", just ask yourself, the last 30 years, how have the rich done compared to everyone else? Way too well!!! The system does need adjusted, and not the direction towards the jet set. That's almost as bad as hearing them say “the job creators". Like an earlier poster said, yea what falls out of their pockets does create a few jobs, mostly in third world countries at slave wages. This article just sounds like a rich brat that doesn't get his way every time. waaah wahh waaaaaah. When most Americans drive to work, or entertain, or eat, the money they spend was all taxable, but somehow these wealthy and for the most part lazy people need a tax break so they can spend enormous amounts of money furiously? Not in my book.

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Submitted by jrose44 on October 09, 2012.

More wealth distribution talk to appeal to the 47% and more. Problem is, it never works- socialism, that is. But it sure can buy votes!

Time to vote this phony out and start repairing our country, not a second too soon.

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Submitted by flyright on October 15, 2012.

I don't understand how corporate Jet owners can fall into the 47% that need a handout. Its why the country has such a high deficit when the big income earners expect a tax cut for everything.
Its basic economic principle that one day you have to pay that debt back through higher taxes.

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