Stan Geiger

Corporate Jets

I saw some of Obama's recent press conference. I understand why he doesn't do much of that. He sucks at it. He is practiced at reading a script while staring at a camera. He isn't so adept at spontaneous response.

He spoke of his kids' homework habits. Who cares? Am I to expect the government of the great United States to do business according to the homework habits of the Obama kids?

He spoke of corporate jets. Oh, he spoke of corporate jets a lot. I watched McLaughlin over the weekend. According to that show, Obama mentioned corporate jets six times during the press conference.

I found his comments a bit disingenuous. I mean he has the most expensive "corporate jet" in the world---and he has worn the wings off of it at taxpayer expense. While on point, it is also disingenuous for the absentee president to deride Congress for not spending enough time in Washington.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love lost for America's corporate management. As far as I'm concerned, they are largely a bunch of overpaid, super-pampered, pricks, undeserving of what they gather. But managing private-sector excess isn't the president's job. Shareholders have the job of managing the executives. The big fish---the pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, extremely rich individuals and, in some instances, foreign governments---have to take that bull by the balls. I would that they get started.

It is the president's job to manage the federal government. In that light, corporate jets are an insignificant issue---too much of an insignificant issue to warrant mention. Uncle Sam is borrowing over $100 billion a month. Removing some tax deduction for corporate jets would generate spit in government revenue.

But, if one chooses to make corporate jets an issue, why leave universities out of the discussion?

OU just hired a new basketball genius. His name is Lon Kruger. The university felt the need to hire a new basketball genius because it just fired the last basketball genius it made a millionaire. Kruger's contract, according to KOTV, is a 7-year deal worth $16 million. Amazing, ain't it?

Kruger's deal includes a whole lot of free travel hours on private jets. Bob Stoops, I have read, has free private-jet hours as part of his deal. Most certainly David Boren avails himself of the private-jet perk, as do, I'm sure, a long list of other university officials and favored dignitaries.

Meanwhile, OU just hiked its tuition by 5 percent---again.

Meanwhile, the outstanding student debt in this country has hit a trillion dollars.

Our illustrious president, while being wont to point to corporate excess for political purposes, doesn't seem to consider excess in higher education a problem worth even an honorable mention.

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