Corporate Aircraft Bashing Déjà vu aka The Flip-Flop-Flip
/NATA Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs Eric R. Byer addressed President Obama's views about general aviation. Click to read the excerpt from his blog post.
Today we witnessed another bashing of corporate aircraft by the President of the United States. Ring a bell? Three years ago the President repeatedly bashed corporate aircraft (after the Big 3 auto manufacturer executives flew into town asking for a federal bailout in 2008) and the general aviation industry was sent into an economic tailspin that we still have yet to recover from. Did the President cause this economic tailspin in totality? No. Did he exacerbate the downturn? You bet.
So here we are again witnessing corporate aircraft bashing déjà vu. And, can our industry withstand another economic tailspin? Let’s not even go there.
Instead, let’s address the President’s blatant disregard for the facts and for his own prior actions. He got up before the White House Press Corps today to air his grievances on all things important to the “inside the beltway” crowd and turned into America’s greatest hypocrite by stating that tax breaks for corporate aircraft operators are “sacred cows” that we must do away with.