Obama to Citigroup: Get Rid of that Jet

That was fast: The Obama administration told Citigroup to get rid of its $50 million jet, just one day after reports about the expenditure made their way into the public eye, ABC News reports.

From ABC:

The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.

The bank used TARP funds to purchase a new corporate jet for executives.

The decision came 24 hours after the banking giant, which was rescued by a $45 billion taxpayer lifeline, defended buying the state-of-the-art Dassault Falcon 7X — one of nine to be flying in U.S. skies — as a smart business deal.

The jet, the epitome of corporate prestige and privilege, can carry 12 passengers in elegant comfort.

ABC News has learned that on Monday officials of the Obama administration called Citigroup about the company’s new $50 million corporate jet and told execs to “fix it.”

I’ll bet Citigroup and other banks aren’t quite used to this. They used to get away with this sort of thing all the time, and I can bet the Bush Administration never picked up the phone. Nothing like moving quickly to correct something that clearly was becoming a symbol of corporate irresponsibility. Now, if the administration could only take back that $4 billion spent on executive bonuses at Merrill Lynch …