When It Comes to Environmental Destruction, Private Jets Offer Plenty of Bang for your Buck
A great deal of cleverness has gone into our present-day assault on the environment, as some of the decisions made by the Trump administration do double- or even triple-duty. Here’s a great example: tax reform that has allowed individuals and companies to write off 100% of the cost of a new or used private jet against their federal taxes. More on the subject in this article from “The Economist.”
Think about the sheer leverage created here. With one stroke of a pen, we have:
• provided additional encouragement to the super-rich to fly private jets, at a terrible cost to the environment.
• taken resources away from the federal government that formerly went to environmental protection and other services that are valued by the common American.
• made billionaires richer.
Here are some major takeaways from this report from the Institute for Policy Studies called “”High Flyers 2017: How the private jet lobby shifts costs to the rest of us, threatens our security, and fuels a warming planet.”
• The private jet lobby spent $56 million lobbying over the past ten years to save more than $1 billion in annual taxes they avoid due to preferential tax treatment.
• The tax cut package under consideration in the Senate maintains and expands the private jet tax carve-out, while the Republican budget plan increases fees on commercial airline passengers.
• Private jets contribute less than one tenth of the resources they use from the Federal Aviation Administration Trust Fund. Commercial airline passengers heavily subsidize private jet passengers.
• Commercial jets are taxed at up to 40 times the rate of private jets on the exact same route despite identical needs in terms of transportation infrastructure.
• Private jets threaten our national security as owners can obscure their identity and passengers face zero security screening.
• A single private jet trip burns more greenhouse gases than the average American does in a whole year.
Giving the super-rich credit where it’s due: these people are intensely good at what they do: wrangling new and improved ways to hog resources and pollute our planet, leaving behind high costs and eco-wreckage for the rest of us.
Craig,
Well done, you finally found an article from a reputable publication instead of facebook!
However, perhaps you may have sourced a more accurate, less biased source than this particular correspondent to extrapolate into your full blown rant against those more affluent than yourself.
The old saying, “environmental fanatics are like watermelons, green on the outside, but red all the way through! ”
Although all aircraft, including private jets contribute to Climate pollution, the contribution is proportionately insignificant. (unlike your outrage!)
I fly a great deal for both business and person commitments. I wish I could justify the cost of my own jet. On occasion I have been fortunate to enjoy the hospitality of those lucky enough to have a private jet at their disposal. On some occasions, I’ve also flown on chartered aircraft.
The US aircraft industry manufactures half of the worlds private jets. The industry employs over 2,000,000 Americans, and generates over 300 billion in economic activity. These figures have in creased by 38% since 2016.
Those greedy, selfish, billionaires who own or lease private jets include such Democrat stalwarts as,:
Warrren Buffet,Meg Whitman,, Mike Bloomberg, George Soros, Sheryl Sandberg, Marc Benioff,Seth Klarman,Alice Walton, Haim Saban (who loans his jet to Bill & Hillary Clinton) J.B. Pritzker (of i’ll spend whatever is necessary to bring down Trump fame), and many more including Oprah Winfrey with a $70 million Gulfstream G650.
But, it’s not just Democrat plutocrats (did you see what I did there? 🙂 ), who own a private jet. Movie stars, sports stars, rock and roll bands all sort of people use private aircraft.
Now as for your facts. As usual, mostly you’ve got them garbled, distorted or just plain wrong!
Firstly, let’s start by correcting some of your more glaring errors:
Tax credits :
1) The Bill revising Tax deductions for Private Jets, was bi-partisan. It was sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), and , Republican Rob Portman.
2) The Joint Committee on Taxation and Finance, reported the cost to the US tax revenue would be less than $500,000, but save million for the IRA from law suits and disputed returns.
3) The new provisions to the act only clarify and simply the existing act and provisions which have become confusing and unworkable.
“This provision in no way cuts taxes for private jet owners,” said Jennifer Donohue, a spokeswoman for Mr. Brown. “It simply clarifies what the law already says. Service companies made up of mechanics and service workers don’t pay ticket taxes, because they don’t sell tickets.”
4) The Obama administration made a series of attacks on the use of private jets, resulting in a loss of American jobs and income, greatly benefiting foreign competition.
5) The assertion “Private jets threaten our national security as owners can obscure their identity and passengers face zero security screening”, is just plain silly as anyone who has ever flown private will tell you.
In fact, the DEA, Homeland Security, US customs etc, is more vigilant with private jets than commercial airlines.
The rest of your claims are just as distorted and absurd. Mostly they seem to be quotes from two authors, Chuck Collins and Josh Hoxie both renowned for their antipathy those more affluent than themselves, and wildly inaccurate observations.
Stop jeopardizing the employment and livelihood of millions of your fellow citizens, just to satisfy your your bitterness that others can afford luxuries you lack.
Will you decline all those donations come 2020, on ethical grounds? Nope, I thought not!