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Congress wants Auto Corporate to dump private jets

When those automakers flew into Washington via private jets to ask a taxpayer bailout, it appalled Congress—most especially Barney Frank, Rep. of Massachusetts.

Frank said that no corporate executives (coming to Washington) asking for bail out funding would be allowed to travel in multi-million dollar symbols of excess. In fairness to the auto execs, private jets are a great way to travel for business. Private flights give you a better control of your time—giving businessmen faster time periods. But Frank did not want to factor this in.

In fact, Rep. Frank dropped a provision in the last bailout bill (H.R. 384) stipulating that would-be recipients of bail-out money should dump their corporate jets.

Upon the next visit of the auto execs they didn’t fly commercial airlines nor private airlines. They drove.

One of Frank’s fellow Democratic congressmen—Rep. Dennis Moore from Kansas—released a statement to CNN regarding the “private jet” incident.

“It is clear that the auto executives were insensitive to American taxpayers when they flew in their private jets to request billions of dollars,” said Moore. “But I have concerns that applying this well-intended provision may have unintended consequences of hurting the general aviation industry and its workers.”

The congressman pointed out that 44,000 workers in Kansas are part of the airplane manufacturing industry—that’s a lot of families.

Later, Rep. Frank released a statement saying: “The private aircraft industry is an important industry in America, and it plays a necessary role with businesses in certain areas of the country.”