Huckabee: Is the president vilifying the rich?

I realize that I'm often critical of the president's policies, but I have to commend him when he is successful in accomplishing what he set out to do. He has made the "millionaires and billionaires" the villains of the disastrous economy that the president still blames on George W. Bush. Bush hasn't been in the White House in three and a half years, well, except for the unveiling of his official portrait this week, but somehow he is so powerful that he still controls the economy.

But you have to hand it to President Obama, he's been successful at one thing. We learned this week that America has far fewer millionaires than it did a year ago -- a lot fewer. The number of households who have $1million or more in assets fell by 129,000 last year. Now, to put that in perspective, the rest of the world saw an increase of 175,000 millionaires, but in our country alone there are 129,000 fewer people that Obama thinks are too rich. And as for the notion that the rich are the ones who "get richer," the wealth of the really, really, really rich people-those with over $100 million in assets, that declined by 2.4 percent, it's the largest drop in wealth for any group.

Now look, I am not shedding tears for the millionaires or billionaires because they are still better off even with the loss in income than most other people and their lifestyles aren't going to be affected that much. But the people who work for them are probably going to feel the pinch. Because, when rich people have a loss in income, they might hold off buying a new luxury car or building a third home. That means the person who sells the car or who builds the car might lose his job. Now, when the rich person doesn't build the third home, it's the carpenters, plumbers, electricians, plaster specialists, the bricklayers, and the roofers who lose the work. If the rich person has to sell a yacht or airplane, it's the person who cared for and cleaned the boat and the dock operator who gets hurt, as well as pilots and the line crew at the airport. It might be some of the household staff of the rich guy who has to go as well. And if he doesn't eat as often at expensive restaurants, it's the cooks, the busboys, and the wait staff that might get let go.

Oh yeah, the president can celebrate this week. This lousy economy has really hit the wealthiest among us, and fewer of them are millionaires. They probably won't have to move out of their homes or start walking to work, but some of the people who used to work for them probably will.

The president loves to vilify the millionaires and the billionaires, and I guess that's okay if he wants to make them the scapegoats for the bad economy. But I've worked for several rich people in my lifetime, and I found out that when things got tough, the rich guy I worked for was far more likely to lay me off than to fire himself. President Obama is a millionaire. And his job is up for renewal in November.

Maybe he'll be the next millionaire to no longer be rich, since he seems to think it's such a bad thing.