The Yacht Tax Rises from the Grave; This Time It Wears Wings.

Remember the yacht tax? That was back in 1991 when the class warriors in congress decided that putting an excise tax on boats over $100,000 was an easy and painless way of taxing the rich.

Well, that’s not the way it worked out. The rich decided not to buy any new yachts. Instead of collecting taxes from the rich, the government ended up putting thousands of workers - the middle class that builds boats - at boatyards and marinas out of work.

The executive vice president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, Frank Scalpone, said the tax had already adversely affected the nation's top boat builders. He cited companies like Pearson Yachts, O'Day Corporation, Shannon Boat Builders and Bristol Yachts as ones that have been forced out of business. "For production boat builders fighting the recession, it was the straw that broke the camel's back," Mr. Scalpone said.

How stupid do you have to be not to foresee this? Apparently you have to be as stupid as the average Democrat in government, as stupid as Barack Obama is about all the rest of the economy. Nothing, literally nothing that Obama has done about the US economy has worked out. Not the “stimulus,” not “cash for clunkers,” not support for underwater mortgages, not his “green jobs” initiatives, not his promise of “shovel ready” jobs. And now he’s suggesting a repeat of the disastrous yacht tax, but this time on aircraft.

If this passes, get ready for the destruction of the private jet industry and the 1.2 million people it employs. Like yachts, people and corporations can defer the purchase of a plane, or decide not to buy one altogether.

I don’t know if Obama knows this or if he does know, whether he cares. I suspect he sees it as a campaign talking point useful in portraying Republicans as the party of the rich but which will never be enacted into law. If the Republicans were bloody minded enough, they might be tempted to go along just to see the corporate jet business crash and burn as the result of the Obama tax and use it as an election issue. An added benefit would be to hurt GE – a huge jet engine manufacturer - whose chairman, Jeff Immelt, is a major Obama backer. It could be a win-win.

UPDATE:  The Other McCain on the jet tax. 

And Rush Limbaugh: With the Obama Myth Shattered, What's Left is a Failing Narcissist.

Well, that's all Obama's got. All he has is class warfare. You know, Obama's out there chiding the Republicans for not acting like grownups. So when's he gonna go answer questions about jobs or the economy? He just... I don't know. The White House says they're gonna host a Twitter town hall with President Obama on July 6, and that's where the president will answer questions submitted via Twitter which limits messages to 140 characters. "The town hall will focus on jobs and the economy and a video feed of Obama's answers will be streamed online." So he's gonna go answer questions about jobs and the economy on Twitter.

Limbaugh on taking Obama seriously:

How do you take this guy seriously? The only reason you take this guy seriously is because of the power he's got but you don't take him seriously because of his intellect. He can make fun of, he can mock 535 members of Congress for not showing leadership while he refuses to lead. How do you take that seriously? He can brag that his pre-teenage daughters don't wait 'til the last minute to finish their homework while he hasn't even turned in last year's budget -- and he gets their ages wrong! He doesn't even know how old his daughters are. So on the one hand you have to take it seriously; on the other hand you feel like a fool for doing so.