Fri, Jul 01, 2011
Republicans Call The Move A 'Stalking Horse'
Congressional Republicans say that President Obama's use of the
imagery of wealthy people flying around in "corporate jets" is
nothing more than a stalking horse for larger tax increases sought
by Democrats.
Following Wednesday's news conference, where the President made
several disparaging references to business aircraft and the people
who use them, Republican leaders in Washington said the speech was
another attempt by the White House to use class warfare as a wedge
issue in an effort to obtain tax increases.
Multiple media sources including the Wall Street
Journal and Bloomberg News indicate that a change in
the tax structure to increase the depreciation schedule for
business aircraft back to seven years from the five that is the
current standard would add about $3 billion to the government's
coffers over the next 10 years. But industry insiders say that the
move could be devastating to the business aviation industry, which
despite its troubles still accounts for 1.2 million jobs and $150
billion in economic impact, according to industry analysis.
The Fact Checker blog from the Washington Post gives
the President poor marks for his speech. President Obama suggested
that accelerated depreciation on business airplanes could cost some
people the opportunity to get a student loan for college, but with
the student financial assistance program for FY2011 alone
reportedly tipping the budget scale at $42 billion, and the savings
from the removing the accelerated depreciation estimated to be $3
billion over 10 years, that is a difficult comparison to make.
And, while the president continues to say rhetorically that he
wants to eliminate tax breaks for "the rich", and "millionaires and
billionaires," the tax increases would extend to those individuals
earning $200,000, and couple earning $250,000.
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