July 02, 2011 06:12 PM UTC

How Do You Get To Sesame Street? Apparently Not By Private Jet

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• by: Jason Salzman

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Doug Lamborn was invited on the Richard Randall Show on June 30 to discuss President Obama’s recent remarks on the debt ceiling. Rep. Lamborn took issue with the President’s plan to cut tax breaks for corporate jets:

Lamborn: [President Obama] keeps bringing up class warfare things. For instance, he talks about the corporate jet tax breaks. And by the way that was put into law as part of the stimulus package because it was thought of at the time, just two years ago, that if aircraft manufactures were making more private planes, that would create jobs. So it wasn’t an evil thing just two years ago but now all of the sudden it’s evil. And it’s only $300 million a year. Now I don’t have any particular affection or allegiance to corporate jet owners, but that’s a drop in the bucket Richard. That’s one third of a billion dollars per year when we have a deficit this year of $1.6 trillion. And he mentioned that in his speech six times yesterday. He is obsessed with it.

Rep. Lamborn seems to keep a fairly low profile and rarely makes national news, so it makes sense that a talk-radio host wouldn’t be up to date on Lamborn trivia.

But it’s hard to believe that Randall didn’t remember the barrage of press coverage Lamborn received when the Representative spearheaded a call to remove all governmental funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

One particular statement he made was:

“We have to start somewhere to get our fiscal house in order,” said Lamborn. “And public broadcasting, as good as it might be with some of their programs, is a luxury we can no longer afford.”

To clarify, CPB currently receives $430 million from the government to help fund stuff like National Public Radio, Sesame Street and PBS News Hour. According to Lamborn, this is a luxury we cannot afford.

However removing $300 million in tax breaks for luxury jets is a “drop in the bucket.”

Randall should have asked Lamborn why a drop in the CPB bucket is different from a drop in the corporate jet bucket.

He also let Lamborn off easy by not challenging his statement that he had no affection or allegiance to the corporate jet industry. Have no fear media consumers, I took the liberty to check out the statement, and it seems not to hold up to scrutiny.

According to FEC documents, Lamborn received $7,000 from the Boeing ‘s PAC in the 2010 election cycle and $1,000 in the 2008 election. I have yet to find any CPB PACs or associated individuals writing checks to Lamborn’s campaign coffers.