Obama's class warfare rhetoric on Jet tax breaks as hot air?

Why does President Obama make such a big deal about something that would raise at most $3 billion over 10 years? I say at most because these are based on a static analysis that assumes people won't get fewer jets as the tax rate rises. Yet, Obama makes six mentions of this in his press conference.

President Barack Obama’s proposal to end a tax break for corporate jet owners, a repeated refrain in his news conference yesterday, would achieve less than one-tenth of 1 percent of his target for reducing the federal deficit.
Such a change would put $3 billion into the Treasury over a decade, said two congressional aides familiar with the proposal. Democrats want to require companies that use jets for business purposes to write off the cost over seven years, instead of the five years allowed under current law, said a congressional aide and a White House aide. Airplanes used for charter or commercial flights already must be depreciated over seven years.
Obama mentioned the corporate jet break six times, criticizing Republicans’ unwillingness to include tax increases in legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling. Republicans are pressing for spending cuts in the measure, which must be passed before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department projects that the U.S. will no longer be able to meet its debt obligations. . . .

Democrats are very happy with the president's rhetoric. From the Hill Newspaper:

Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said that for Obama, the rewards for going populist might outweigh the risks of another brushfire with business. “Democrats are happy,” Simmons, a principal at the Washington-based consulting firm The Raben Group, told The Hill in an interview.
“People may argue with his tone, but I’m sure the president is frustrated,” Simmons continued. “The business community is frankly doing OK. It’s working people in this country who are really catching it. The stock market is up, the auto industry is coming back, but we haven’t seen job growth.” . . .

The issue here is really how short should the period for depreciation be. Jets get five years, and other assets get 7 years. The question should really be what assets depreciate faster than others, and I would guess that Congress was given testimony by experts that jets depreciated relatively fast.

Critics pointed out that Obama used to be in favor of similar credit. “Nine months ago, this president extolled the virtues of shortening depreciation schedules to stimulate jobs,” National Business Aviation Association President Ed Bolen said in a statement. “Now he seems to want to reverse course and push ahead with punitive treatment for general aviation, an industry that creates jobs, helps companies succeed and serves communities all around America.” It’s easy to see why Obama might see an advantage in targeting corporate jets, which conjure images of Wall Street billionaires at a time when the country still suffers from high unemployment. Obama has taken aim at the well heeled in the past, most notoriously when he called Wall Street executives “fat cats” — a statement that still stings in the financial world. . . .