Lawmakers in Georgia removed a $38 million tax exemption for jet fuel from tax-cut legislation on Thursday in a move that will punish Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.
Republicans vowed to remove the exemption after the airline cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Georgia's Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (R), who is also running for governor, had threatened to kill any tax legislation that benefits Delta after the company's decision to end a discount program for NRA members.
[...] "I will kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA," Angle tweeted earlier this week.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:58AM (6 children)
No, they're not. The NRA is about 5% of the population nationally. Granted they probably are a larger number in Georgia, but not so large as to tilt races. Especially when you consider that most NRA members don't feel strongly enough about things like background checks and limited magazine size to vote against a politician for refusing to punish a private corporation for exerting it's influence on another private organization.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:51AM (5 children)
The NRA got about 500,000 members this past week due to the controversy. That's over 1% of the population, though foreigners are allowed to join. Your 5% now becomes 6%. Damn that's a lot.
I think it is important to remember that this isn't just a random uninterested 5% or 6%. It's a greater portion of voters, partly due to age and partly due to actually caring. These people show up to vote. They are willing to spend money to advance their political opinion, proving that they are serious.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 03 2018, @06:04AM (2 children)
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:24AM (1 child)
500,000 / 325 million (whole U.S. population) = 0.15%
500,000 / 250,056,000 (estimated U.S. voting age population) = 0.2%
500,000 / 138,847,000 (estimated number who voted in 2016) = 0.36%
NRA has about 5 million members, so more like 1.5% of the nation than 5%. If we assume every one of them votes, that's about 3.6% of 2016 voters (and total turnout could decline in 2020).
I hope this cleared up some of the BS numbers being thrown around in the thread.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections [wikipedia.org]
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-many-members-does-the-nra-really-have_us_59651114e4b005b0fdc8fe90 [huffingtonpost.com]
http://time.com/5176471/national-rifle-association-membership-florida-shooting/ [time.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:55AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @10:51AM (1 child)
Bullshit. Who says they got 500k new members, the NRA? That would mean a 10% increase in their membership, which is preposterous.
If this kind of controversy bumped up their membership even 1% they would be stirring things up a few times per year.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday March 03 2018, @03:41PM
It's not 500,000 new members. It's MILLIONS. That's what so many people are saying. On Facebook. On Twitter. All over our Social Media. And on our conservative blogs. The Fake News media won't tell you. The NRA won't tell you. But their membership is picking up AMAZINGLY. ilovemyfreedom.org/millions-rush-join-nra-anti-gun-lectures-liberal-media [ilovemyfreedom.org]
Believe me, I don't care. I'm not afraid of our NRA. So many of our Republican politicians are afraid of the NRA, of our Second Amendment folks. Not me, what do I need from the NRA? They were a big help to my campaign. $30 million. They do great work protecting our Gun Rights. And I had a terrific meeting with them. But believe me, I'm going to do the right thing on school safety. Because children are VERY SPECIAL. They get killed, it takes awhile to replace them. Depending on how old they were. Let me tell you, our politicians need to worry about the ones that are almost legal. Little Marco, did you see what happened to him? He got a MAJOR SMACKDOWN from some teenagers, from some of the Parkland students. That, very soon, will be old enough to vote. Old enough to run for office. Not for the Senate, not for President. But a lot of offices.