A lesson from the yacht tax [Nealz Nuze, 2011]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3477285/posts
http://www.wsbradio.com/weblogs/nealz-nuze/2011/jun/30/lesson-yacht-tax ^ | Neal Boortz
The current demonization of jets is eerily similar to the demonization of yacht owners in the early 1990s. Back in 1990, George (read my lips, no new taxes) H. W. Bush passed a budget, which included a “luxury tax” on yachts over $100,000 in addition to jewelry, furs, etc. At the time, the Joint Committee on Taxation believed that in 1991 it would be able to rack up $31 million from these luxury taxes. What was reality? They collected just $16 million. Oops. You see, people changed their behavior in response to new tax laws. Duhhhhhh. And then what do you know! These new taxes had an effect on the economy. George Will explains the economic consequences of this luxury tax:
According to a study done for the Joint Economic Committee, the tax destroyed 330 jobs in jewelry manufacturing, 1,470 in the aircraft industry and 7,600 in the boating industry. The job losses cost the government a total of $24.2 million in unemployment benefits and lost income tax revenues. So the net effect of the taxes was a loss of $7.6 million in fiscal 1991, which means the government projection was off by $38.6 million.
Yes -— when the screams of those who had lost their jobs were heard, and the failure of the new taxes to generate revenue was recognized, the taxes were repealed. Trouble is, the yacht building that had flown overseas as a result of the tax never really returned. But that’s OK, I guess -— because only rich people buy yachts, right? Corporate CEOs and people like that. So screw them. If middle class people lose jobs in shipyards -— well then that’s the price we just have to pay.
Neal Boortz
New Deal Confession
We Have Tried Spending Money
http://www.burtfolsom.com/?p=1217
by Burt on June 28, 2011
On the first pages of ‘New Deal or Raw Deal?’ the story of Henry Morgenthau unfolds. Morgenthau was a close friend of Franklin Roosevelt, and FDR appointed Morgenthau as Secretary of the Treasury in 1933. By 1939, the New Deal was into its seventh year, and the Great Depression continued.
On May 9, 1939, Morgenthau met with the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee in a private meeting of Democrat leaders. Morgenthau included a transcript of the meeting in his “diary,” which was a hodgepodge of documents, memoranda, and diary entries that became thousands of pages by the time Morgenthau left office in 1945.
Morgenthau’s diary is on microfilm at the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York. On microfilm roll #50 of the Morgenthau Diary, readers will find the transcript of Morgenthau’s now-famous quote, on frame #41 from the May 9th meeting:
“Now, gentlemen, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.”
‘When New Deal or Raw Deal?’ was first published, Morgenthau’s words began to appear on many programs: Hannity, Glenn Beck, newspaper editorials.
In fact, so many people contacted the Library of Congress trying to find the source that one of the congressional librarians contacted Hillsdale College in order to track down the exact citation. Naysayers who searched only in the congressional record alledged that the quote was a fabrication. Below is a link to photocopies of the first six pages of Morgenthau’s transcript from May 9, 1939. The entire meeting is over twenty pages and can be found at the FDR Library, Small Collections, Morgenthau Diary, Roll #50.