This is the interior of Rush Limbaugh's private jet. Not kidding.

This is the interior of Rush Limbaugh's private jet. Not kidding.

On his Fox Business show, Lou Dobbs said, "Did you hear the president today talking about millionaires, billionaires, and corporate jets? I mean, that's straightforward class warfare."

[GLENN BECK:] Once again, yesterday, Barack Obama showed his sheer, unadulterated disgust for the wealthy, the successful, and anyone who's ever tried to do anything with their life here in America. He disparages them. Big business he disparages, of all kinds, every chance he gets. He has launched an unprecedented class warfare in this country, and the media remains silent.

LIMBAUGH: Here is Obama with corporate jet owners in the crosshairs again -- and remember, now, it was just last week, the USA Today ran a story about how the corporate jets were starting to fly again, corporate jet owners were utilizing the aircraft. It was a sign! USA Today so happy! It was a sign of economic recovery. Today in his press conference, Obama once again cranking up the class warfare. [...] This is just -- dangerous is what this is. This is full-fledged demagoguery, and we're listening to this from the chief architect of the destruction of this economy. And once again, pitting groups of Americans against each other. One group -- his aim is for one group of Americans to hate and despise another group.

Because of course they are. Media Matters

You can just feel their concern for the little people oozing off your screen, can't you? The civilized Rush Limbaugh wants nothing more than to call out "demagoguery." He's really, really against people who try to get one group of Americans to hate other Americans. He hates that. (Note to the reader: please stop laughing.)

What they're talking about is a proposal by the president to have corporate jets depreciated over seven years, rather than the five years provided for now by, yes, a current loophole.

I will allow you a moment to regain your composure, or simply jar yourself awake again after reading that sentence, because this represents the sort of Existential Fucking Threat to the Republic that gets Republicans into a serious lather. Corporate jets depreciating over seven years, rather than five? My God, what monsters have we become? It's all right to nix new school lunch standards because feeding kids healthier food would cost more. It's all right to break labor agreements. Heaven knows it's all right to cut food stamp assistance or unemployment insurance, or tell seniors that Medicare is going away and good luck finding private insurance, pals. Austerity is the buzzword of the day—but tax depreciation over SEVEN years instead of FIVE? To the battlements! The comfortable, leather-appointed battlements!

So as ridiculous as that all sounds, that is precisely what happened. Republican senator and human onomatopoeia Mike Crapo was among many who simply declared the rule change not open to debate. And throughout the conservative (translation: ridiculously wealthy) punditry machine, the word was out: this must not stand. And we're deeply offended you even suggested it.



I wish I was kidding about this. I really, really wish I was. But as you can see... it's actually real. If you want a fine example of what sorts of things Republicans will go to the mat for, compared to the sort of things Democrats would go to the mat for (presuming they went to the mat for things, but you know what I mean), this is it.

Mind you, Rush Limbaugh (who proudly moved from New York in order to evade new taxes there, a few years back) owns a private jet—but that has nothing to do with his deep concern for private jet owners. And yes, perhaps it seems implausible that Obama is, as Limbaugh asserts, the "chief architect of the destruction of this economy," but in Rush Limbaugh's mind, the financial crisis and collapse into recession during Bush's term didn't actually count, because of some reason that is never quite clear but which I believe has something to do with Time Lords, and the recession only really became a recession when the Democrat won. Now quit with the demagoguery already, says Rush.

For some time now, conservatives have been declaring that any minor inconvenience thrust upon the wealthy was "class warfare." I take it this was supposed to inure us to the words, so that we would be very, very ashamed to use them ourselves in all the other situations that might seem to suggest them, i.e. when every cut of government services was disproportionally allocated to services to the poor, or when a governor once again proposed a state budget that raised taxes on the middle class but lowered taxes on the wealthy.

So who is being asked to carry the burdens, in this recession, and who is not? Who is seeing government do less for them, and who is not? Who is paying the price of "austerity," and who is being defended from it?

Let's suppose this is a class war, Mr. Limbaugh. Are you outraged that the class war exists, or are you only outraged that the other side noticed?

