This corporation — let’s call it BigBoy — had decided not to take Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) money back when it was available. (Surely you remember TARP — the entity that would return us to prosperity.) BigBoy did send a representative to a meeting at which the guvmint was to explain how TARP worked. That representative called his boss from the meeting and reported that the guvmint was going to help companies that took TARP dollars succeed, but make life tough for those companies that did not take TARP dollars. The powers-that-be changed their collective minds and BigBoy did take TARP dollars.
Thereafter, the guvmint — evidently suspecting that BigBoy jets were sometimes used for trips that were not strictly business — decided that BigBoy did not need that many corporate jets, and “persuaded” BigBoy to whittle the fleet down to two corporate jets. This also caused a proportionate reduction in the number of pilots.
Interesting, to say the least.
We know that Obama appreciates the value of dedicated jet aircraft. I am told that he uses his presidential aircraft — and the aircraft that support those aircraft — more than any other president has.
You’d think Obama might even understand a not-strictly-business trip. Do you remember when Obama was in Paris on business, accompanied by his wife and both daughters? Do you also remember that he returned to Washington, but left wife and daughters in Paris so that they could “go shopping?” Seems he also left a Boeing to bring them home. We can only imagine how many support people and equipment were also left for their care and protection. I’ve never seen a reasonable estimate of the cost of that little shopping trip.
Does that shopping trip seem like legitimate guvmint business to you? It doesn’t to me either. On top of that, I understand this caper did not please USA merchants.
Do you suppose Obama paid for the extra expense out of his pocket? I doubt it.
I understand that’s the way big shots in private companies are required to handle it.
Come to think of it, if the guvmint suspected that BigBoy made non-business trips, why didn’t they just tell them that the executives involved had to pay for those trips? Why would the guvmint instead push BigBoy to sell some of the jets?
Now, at the same time, the guvmint talks of charging corporation turbine aircraft something like $100 per leg for all business trips. I wonder if any corporations will get rid of a propjet and go back to a C-421 for corporate use?
I also wonder if anybody in guvmint really gives a hoot.
