By Jeffrey Lord

He is the new tax collector for the welfare state. And House Speaker John Boehner’s latest gift to the American people — a 124% tax increase on air travel — can aptly be called The Air Boehner Tax.

But first…a short time travel trip.

The date: Monday. January 11, 1982

The place: The White House

Wrote President Ronald Reagan in his diary of this day:

Repub. House Leaders came down to the W.H. —Except for Jack Kemp they are h—l bent on new taxes…

Another date: Wednesday, August 4, 1982

The place: The White House.

Another entry from Reagan’s diary:

Met with Jack Kemp (alone) & then in leadership meeting. He is adamant that we are wrong on the tax increase. He is in fact unreasonable. The tax increase is the price we pay to get the budget cuts.

Kemp could not have disagreed more, and this episode from 1982 is worth recalling as Speaker Boehner and Congressman Paul Ryan go about the business of selling the Ryan-Murray budget deal.

A budget deal that specifically imposes a 124% tax increase on air travelers, as noted in the Daily Caller.

As Reagan correctly recorded at the time, Congressman Jack Kemp, the leading proponent of the tax cuts that were the foundation of the job-creating machine that was famously scorned by Democrats as “Reaganomics” furiously opposed the tax increase that was pushed not only by congressional Democrats but, tellingly, the House and Senate Republican leadership as well. Specifically then-Senate Finance Committee chairman, Kansas GOP Senator Bob Dole.

-SNIP

Read more:http://spectator.org/articles/57137/air-boehner-tax