Bank Executives Freed Of These Earthly Bounds!
From Flying magazine's eIssue:
On Tuesday night, with no fanfare whatsoever, Congress left out a provision of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) that would have prohibited TARP beneficiaries from using bizjets. No word on exactly why the provision was deleted, but NBAA, among other aviation member organizations, is delighted. In a release on Wednesday, NBAA President Ed Bolen put it nicely, saying "Congress has clearly recognized that it is important to provide Americans with strong oversight of the federal dollars in the TARP program, but that the language addressing business aviation had the potential to fuel job losses for countless people in the general aviation community." The bill looked to be headed for approval by as early as Thursday.
We are very relieved over here. Being forced to sit next to Ken Lewis in first class (or John Thain for that matter, who would try to sell you his bag of half eaten nuts he'd already spit in for twice their retail cost once the flight attendant had left) was just not something we wanted to endure, and we just know he'd step right on our face to get into the raft if we put down in the Hudson.