Forgive me, I have no transcript of Rush’s remarks since I heard them in the car this afternoon. My quotes are from memory, and thus may not be exactly correct. However, I believe the gist of what Rush said is accurately presented — Steven D
Poor Rush Limbaugh is sad. So sad he couldn’t even begin to express the sorrow in his heart. What was causing him such grief? Well, it seems in the budget negotiations (according to Rush so take the following with a massive container of rock salt) Obama advocated that the accelerated tax depreciation allowance on corporate jets be raised from five years to seven years.
It took a while before I knew that this was the cause of Rush’s great distress, however. First he had to complain that liberals have no empathy for “the real people struggling out there” and that the Obama administration (or maybe just liberals in general — it was a little hard to follow him at this point what with all the sighing and faux outrage going on) was just “a bunch of robots” engaged in a “grand social experiment.”
Then when I heard that the source of his ire was Obama’s proposal to require corporations to write off the costs for corporate owned jets over seven years instead of the current five years, I really had to laugh. Really Rush, you’re sad about corporations having to depreciate their corporate jet costs over 7 years instead of five?
All this moaning over the fact that over the next ten years corporations with enough money to afford private jets will have to pay $3 Billion more in taxes. That’s ten years for all corporations who own a corporate jet. Oh the pain, the injustice of it all! My guess? Rush or his buddies are some of the few people who get to fly in corporate jets rather than go through the hell the rest of us experience when we fly. Oh wait, Obama’s proposal is worse for poor Rush than I thought! Just take a gander at these photos of the luxury private jet he bought in 2008. Or this one:
I guess Rush is mad/sad about the possibility he might get a few less bucks deducted from his taxes. I can see why he might be a little agitated. Still, what Rush said next wasn’t so funny.
Why? Because Rush decided to attack students getting federal financial aid.
(cont.)
Basically he suggested that federal student financial aid in the form of Pell Grants, Stafford loans and other assistance be eliminated. Why? Because those students “aren’t learning anything –(long pause)– useful.” In other words he blamed my kids, your kids, and for those of you a bit older your grand-kids, for ruining our economy and exploding the federal budget. By implication, they are either stupid or lazy or both and they are wasting valuable tax dollars that could go to more worthy causes, such as, for example, giving Rush and his CEO buddies a bigger tax deduction on their corporate jets.
I’m sure some of his audience was lapping this up, especially those who never went to college, but also I’m willing to bet a fair proportion of those who received and relied upon GI Bill benefits (i.e., my father for one) so they could go to school, or cheap student loans and government funded state colleges and universities that allowed their children (e.g., my brothers, sister and I) to afford to go to college without running up $100,000 – $150,000 in student loan debt.
Rush, I know you are a loud mouthed, draft dodging, Oxycontin addict who failed miserably at college and who makes big money only because you are willing to say anything, any lie or slur you can get away with to demean your fellow Americans in order to advance the conservative agenda of the wealthiest people in America, but really, college kids who get federal assistance are to blame for the current economic and budget crisis? Today’s college kids are to blame for the failure of our economy?
Today’s college kids lucky enough to get student financial aid from the federal government in order to pay ever more outrageous tuition and fees — believe me I know because my son graduate Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees in four years time this May — aren’t the problem.
Financial aid to students qualified to attend college is an investment in our nation’s families and our nation’s future.
Washington, D.C., April 30, 2004—A new national report documents widespread and dramatic benefits to the nation from investing in higher education and the critical role played by student aid. […]
The national benefits linked to investing in student aid and college access, according to the report, include: higher tax revenues; lower unemployment; greater productivity; reduced reliance on public assistance; increased consumption; increased civic participation; decreased crime; and increased quality of health, civic life, and social cohesion. […]
Three decades of declining federal grant levels and decreasing state funding for colleges and universities, the study reports, have dramatically shifted the burden of rising college costs to students and their families, especially at lower-income levels. The percentage of family income required to pay for one year of college almost doubled for low-income families—from 13 to 25%—between 1987 and 2001. High-income families consistently spend less than 5% of their income.
In three decades, need-based grant aid has plunged from 61% of the share of federal student aid to 22% today, while loans have soared from 34% to70%. Pell Grants now pay for only about 34% of the average cost of attendance, down from 84% in the mid-1970s.
Corporate jets, on the other hand, are an investment in the comfort and luxury of senior executives (and their clients, friends and family members) of large corporations. People like Rush Limbaugh.
No wonder Rush is so upset. Obama doesn’t care enough about about him.
EXTRA BONUS COVERAGE!!! Here’s what Rush said yesterday about Obama’s proposal to eliminate this tax break for corporate jets (via Media Matters):
LIMBAUGH: Here is Obama with corporate jet owners in the crosshairs again — and remember, now, it was just last week, the USA Today ran a story about how the corporate jets were starting to fly again, corporate jet owners were utilizing the aircraft. It was a sign! USA Today so happy! It was a sign of economic recovery. Today in his press conference, Obama once again cranking up the class warfare.
[…]
RUSH: This is just — dangerous is what this is. This is full-fledged demagoguery, and we’re listening to this from the chief architect of the destruction of this economy. And once again, pitting groups of Americans against each other. One group — his aim is for one group of Americans to hate and despise another group. What? What are you – well, that’s what he’s banking on: he’s banking on that most Americans will agree with him because this is fair, and to a certain extent there’s some Americans who will agree with it. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/29/11]
Flying corporate jets are a sign of economic recovery? For who exactly? Not these people:
June 30 (Bloomberg) — More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating little progress in the labor market. […]
Weaker demand in recent months has prompted some companies to trim their workforces, adding to concern a cooling labor market will further restrain consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Federal Reserve officials last week retained record monetary stimulus to help the economy withstand a “temporary” slowdown in growth.
“The labor market is not making any material improvement,” said John Herrmann, senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston, who projected 429,000 claims in the latest week. “Consumer spending will be more constrained.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/30/bloomberg1376-LNLS201A1I5301-2TH3ABSS53MNRC6TND1LFN2I2V.DTL#ixzz1QnKu2y6a
Well what do I know. I am only a lowly blogger, not someone with “talent on loan from God.” By the way Rush, I heard you defaulted on that loan a long time ago. I sure hope God (or the Flying Spaghetti Monster) extracts his/her pound of flesh from you in the afterlife. No one, and I mean no one, is as deserving of that special treatment as you.
