Discussion: McCaskill’s Plane Problems Continue As Conservative Watchdog Requests Probe

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#41

Actually they are utilizing the general public’s lack of understanding of business financial terminology to attempt to smear her - that and making sweep speculative statements without any substantive facts regarding the details of the operation and expenses of the plane in question - other than knowing the total number of miles that it flew - and having some gross ballpark estimate of potential “income” for a plane in this category

FUNDAMENTALLY - the conservatives have no knowledge about how the plane is operated - they know that it “traveled more than 40,000 miles” last year - but they do not know how many of those were actually “revenue miles” … they do not know the associated expenses, the frequency & cost of maintenance, any extraordinary repairs , the salary of support staff, rate of deprecation and on and on …

Remember - The intended utilization of the plane was outlined in the past as it was stated “When McCaskill’s husband bought the plane in 2013, her office stated that it would be chartered for outside use in addition to primary use by his company and occasional use by the senator.”

Keep “Primary use by his company” and “occasional use by the senator” in mind - pretty clear that this plane is a tool / business resource - it is not a “profit center” - it does not exist as a corporate asset for the purpose of directly generating revenue - it is there to improve efficiency
… Now think about McCaskill’s predecessor Jean Carnahan - how Carnahan’s husband Mel Carnahan died … it is not at all unreasonable to think that the McCaskill’s priorities are strongly skewed toward safety - even excessive safety - and assume the care and maintenance of this plane, the caliber of the flight crew and every other aspect are well beyond conventional standards …

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#42

You left out Fast and Furious, Solyndra, ACORN, Jade Helm…the list goes on.

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#43

And it’s being repeated far and wide. Oh, wait, just here at TPM.

#44

A poor attempt at ‘swift-boating’.

#45

It’s pretty simple. If the plane is used for charters, you get to deduct the expenses associated with the fraction of the time that the plane is available to be chartered. You’re not going to make a huge profit, because serious dedication to the charter side means the plane won’t be available for its primary uses. But you have to make some profit so that the IRS doesn’t call it a hobby plane and disallow the deductions entirely.

#46

I could be mistaken but I think that the poster was being snarky.

#47

Written snark’s a tricky thing. It needs to be more sledgehammer like. He’s been a consistently reasonable guy. But who knows. Anyone can snap under the burden of all the bad news.

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#48

And this surprises you? How many more examples of the party of fiscal conservatives not knowing how to count does one need in 2018?

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#49

As somebody who uses snark a lot, sometimes I get misunderstood. But who knows.

#50

I was going to point out the Mel Carnahan angle.

With the weird weather we’ve been having in MO I hope Claire has safe flights.

#51

What I want to know is where are the Democrats Watchdogs demanding probes of Republicans, Damn there should be one on almost every Republican running for office. Today’s Republican Party is the most Corrupt political party in our country’s history.

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#52

What surprises me is that some people don’t recognize that “plane” is to McCaskill what “email” was to Clinton.

Remember that the initial attack on McCaskill was for using the plane instead of the RV she’d been traveling through the state in.

It really isn’t hard to operate a plane at a loss.

Edited to add: @jtl was on the plane = email much earlier than I was.

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#53

I will get bent out of shape over this the moment all the other senators have their private plane revenue questioned. She isn’t wrong. Private planes, even if leased out, often operate at a net loss for the owner. Leasing income is generally thought to reduce the amount of loss.

What McCaskill is saying is she and her husband had a lot of loss carryforwards. I don’t see anything reported that would lead me to question that claim.

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#54

Thank you. I’m a little disheartened by the display of poor reading comprehension here today. Slow down, people. I know you are smart enough.

#55

Because as Hillary Clinton can tell you, investigations based on farcical notions never cause problems for the person being investigated when there’s no wrongdoing.

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#56

I find the “but she’s rich” nonsense very offensive. I went to High School with her. She was a Cheerleader, Prom Queen, popular, etc. I know the stereotype about girls like her but Claire was real and nice to everyone. She wasn’t stuck-up or full of herself and I don’t believe she has changed. As said by others, this is an attempt at making up stuff to try and hurt her, because the republican is weak. So they attack; doesn’t matter if it’s true, they just need enough idiots to believe it.

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#57

Except, she didn’t break the rules.

Extremist wingnuts lied and she answered the lie with facts. Extremist wingnuts keep shouting.

How else does one react to false charges?

#58

Actually, I did hear something the other day having to do with her family taxes, but will have to go back and find the source.

I believe her husband is a hedge fund manager of some sort and they file taxes separately. Perhaps this watchdog group is trying to manufacture a scandal based on her husband’s finances and muddy the waters just enough that it smears her, too?

#59

Why sure! I think they should investigate the disposition of every penny, because R’s always conduct these investigations with perfect impartiality. Once all the facts are on the table and they see there was no wrongdoing, I’m sure they’ll close the hearings and apologize for the inconvenience.

#60

Uranium One. Pizzagate.

Nothing ever has to be proven anymore in the new world of disinformation and partisanship. An accusation is enough to drag someone down into endless recriminations and years of smear campaigns that feed into the crazed narrative of the right.

Liars know they have the whole RWNJ empire to spread their propaganda, so they can make up anything salacious and ride it forever, with every talk show idiot adding their own home-grown embellishments.

I think that’s why Franken decided just to quit instead of fight it.

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