Taxes and the election

We, as voters, are confronted with two distinct theories of taxation in the upcoming election.  Our choice will frame our future, so let’s look back for guidance.

We need not accept an unemployment rate of five percent or more, such as we have had for 60 out of the last 61 months. There is no need for us to be satisfied with a rate of growth that keeps good men out of work and good capacity out of use…

[O]ur present tax system…exerts too heavy a drag on growth in peace time; that it siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power; that it reduces the financial incenitives [sic] for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking. In short, to increase demand and lift the economy, the federal government’s most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities for private expenditures…

Corporate tax rates must also be cut to increase incentives and the availability of investment capital…

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.

Governor Romney?  President Bush?  President Reagan?

No, those words were spoken by President Kennedy in December, 1962.  You can read the entire speech here.

President Kennedy was able to get Congress to cut tax rates and close “tax loopholes” the following spring.  So what happened threafter?

 Tax revenues climbed from $94 billion in 1961 to $153 billion in 1968, an increase of 62 percent

The same has happened every time we have cut tax rates…tax revenues increase. And Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Bush understood that.

But that prompts another question.

Democrats tell us that, over time, the Republican party has veered sharply to the right.

Who sounds more like President Kennedy…President Obama, or Governor Romney?

And which party has veered, sharply, or otherwise? 

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

14 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on October 13, 2012 at 7:10 pm

    Oh, so now you’re Jack Kennedy?? ;-)? LOLOL (in a Bidenesque manner)!!!



  2. Dimsdale on October 13, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    The Dems have turned radically left.?? That is why they project their extremism on the Republicans.??? The last Democrat worth a hoot in he!! was Zell Miller.
    ?
    I still wish he had had that duel with Chris Matthews………



  3. stinkfoot on October 13, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    Obama has shown that he isn’t interested in helping the economy.? His agenda appears to be a bureaucratic expansion- the increased tax structure needed to support it he cultivates support by playing his demagogue class warfare games where the object of his contempt- the middle class is led to believe that punitively taxing the very rich will fund it.? Being a part of the group being demonized, Obama himself must realize the fallacy of the tale being woven- making more than transparent the lie being told to the middle class- for whose intelligence he is showing his utter contempt through his rhetoric and policies.



  4. TomM on October 13, 2012 at 7:42 pm

    I listen to the show everyday via PC at work. Guess what? Putty pants others will never get it.
    You rightfully so mentioned 3 presidents that not only had a clue in macro encomonics- but also?3 things seemly unseen. People got right?up and did not rely on goverment. We as were before.No nation some nation messed with us.We do not look for fights- just do not bother a democractic republic. And all the “bad numbers” went very down. How interesting is it that the democractic party does not mention John Kennedy today. Simple he had conservitive values.
    In case no one is paying to the “not so funny pages”. Look what their leadership did. Sorry the list is rather long– lets start with the cuban missle item. You figure out the rest. Sorry, I was one of those kids that hid under a desk during drills. Think about a few?things Sister wrote.
    Another thing. Do we need a “wake up call”? look?at history – it has not failed yet to learn from. Some have no clue at all. Repeating mistakes is not good for America – wake the heck up. How many times does one need to figure this out? Try hitting your finger several times with a hammer and then? say- opps-don’t do that again. oh well
    ??



  5. Plainvillian on October 14, 2012 at 9:32 am

    It’s also important to note JFK’s speech was not a campaign speech but a post election policy statement.? As the vile LBJ’s “Great Society” took shape, it proved that the more government tries to do for any constituency , the less effective it is in so doing and the more costly are the incremental gains.? In the ensuing 50 years we have produced a government and culture in a self generated near stasis, always striving for some painless, risk free and impossible utopian result.
    If we continue on this course, adding class warfare to the toxicity, what will we be in 2017?



  6. Gary J on October 14, 2012 at 10:22 am

    Is there anyone out there that in reality thinks that any liberal can or will even try to understand all of that? As soon as any one of them sees “tax cut” they shut down because they see their handouts slipping away. All of the things Our government does and controls, is the very reason the constitution and it’s amendments was written.



  7. JBS on October 14, 2012 at 11:12 am

    We know what reelecting the current Democrat Regime will yield regarding our taxes and our government. Taxes will only go up and government will continue to grow, every aspect devouring more and more dollars. The cronies will keep their snouts in the public trough. We have an obesity problem in government. Obama and the big government crowd will never admit that.
    Every other positive indicator of good government will go down. Confidence will continue to plummet.
    Any current Democrat‘s claim to historical Liberal eminence is an illusion. It is dishonest. Today’s Democrats, claiming a lineage of liberalism, are nothing like yesterday’s. William Kristol has a very good essay on the effects of today’s liberalism.
    Where do our taxes go? The Bureau of Economic Analysis (National Income and Product Accounts Tables, Section 3 has gigs of data. A synopsis, of all places (!),? is offered at <a…



    • JBS on October 14, 2012 at 11:30 am

      MSNBC. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is more current.
      Please read the Kristol piece. It offers reasons why the current Democrats, especially Obama, are so depressed. As a result, negativity abounds in Washington and everything it touches.
      Government is the problem.



  8. sammy22 on October 14, 2012 at 12:15 pm


    • JBS on October 14, 2012 at 4:35 pm

      That was for 2009.
      How are? taxes going to change on January 1, 2013?



  9. Lynn on October 14, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    It is interesting, I was too young to vote for JFK, but if he were running today, I would vote for him. The Democrat party was so different then. JFK was nothing like the bloated Teddy Kennedy. ?I am hoping some lifelong Democrats will understand that and vote for Governor Romney.



    • JBS on October 15, 2012 at 9:17 am

      Invoking Reagan is disingenuous, at best. Reagan was a communicator. He worked hard with a Democrat majority House and a slim majority Republican Senate to enact legislation. Tip O’Neill forced many Democrat policies on him, taxes being one of them.
      Obama is the antithesis of Reagan. Obama is the epitome of hyper-partisanship. The current crop of Democrats, especially their leadership, is bereft of cooperation. All they want is to dominate. Compromise means doing it their way.
      Are you saying raising taxes is a good thing? What are you saying? What do you have to say?



  10. Marilyn on October 15, 2012 at 7:33 am

    In addition, President Clinton lowered? the Cap/Gains tax from 25-20% resulting in more revenue from CG tax.? President Bush lowered it to 15%.? which almost tripled the revenue.? You would think people would learn, but not so much.



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