During his last press conference, President Barack Obama focused, as he should have, on the fragile state of the economy. Much of his discussion was devoted to the difficult negotiations that lie ahead on the deficit, where the president has pushed hard for a "balanced" approach that requires some mix of spending cuts on the one hand with an inevitable increase in taxes on the other.
But just whose taxes should be increased, and why? On that particular question the president was quick to play the populist card by claiming that the nameless "millionaires and billionaires" ought to bear the brunt of these tax increases, which would otherwise fall on our poorest and most vulnerable citizens. "Corporate jet owners" figured into Obama’s rhetorical calculus on six separate occasions as he called upon an end to tax breaks on corporate jets.
