There is an enormous difference
in the politicians of the present time to the politicians of my childhood and
youth. Democrats often hold up President John F. Kennedy as a great Democrat.
What they do not realize is that JFK was more conservative than many of the
so-called conservatives of today. Today's post is a lesson in history.
In an address to the Economic Club
of New York on 14 December 1962, President Kennedy campaigned for tax cuts,
claiming that the nation could not succeed with them. You can read his talk at this site or listen to it at this site. Here is an excerpt from his talk.
Our true choice is not
between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large Federal
deficits on the other. It is increasingly clear that no matter what party is in
power, so long as our national security needs keep rising, an economy hampered
by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance our
budget just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits. Surely the
lesson of the last decade is that budget deficits are not caused by wild-eyed
spenders but by slow economic growth and periodic recessions, and any new
recession would break all deficit records.
In short, it is a
paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too
low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the
rates now. The experience of a number of European countries and Japan have
borne this out. This country's own experience with tax reduction in 1954 has
borne this out. And the reason is that only full employment can balance the
budget, and tax reduction can pave the way to that employment. The purpose of
cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more
prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.
I repeat: our practical
choice is not between a tax-cut deficit and a budgetary surplus. It is between
two kinds of deficits: a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of
inadequate revenues and a restricted economy; or a temporary deficit of
transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, increase
tax revenues, and achieve--and I believe this can be done--a budget surplus.
The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness; the second reflects
an investment in the future....
… This
Nation can afford to reduce taxes, we can afford a temporary deficit, but we
cannot afford to do nothing.
I
do not claim to like everything that JFK said or did, but I thought that he was
a good President. After listening to him give this speech, I still believe that
he was a good leader. It would be nice to have such a strong defender of tax
cuts today.
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