Trivia Question of the Week
A 20th Century President was famed for saying, "A rising tide lifts all boats."
Which President was it, and what was he talking about?
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Dean's World Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy. |
John Kennedy said it when he was explaining why he wanted to cut income tax rates.
And I believe that was ACROSS THE BOARD tax cuts, as well.
He wouldn't make it out of today's DNC primaries.
Cutting taxes to improve the economy...God that man was BRILLIANT!
Gosh, Don't you miss the days when a Kennedy made sense???
JFK would have made a great Republican!
And if my (foggy) memory serves, the Republicans opposed Kennedy's tax cut proposal. They were worried about its effect on the deficit. (It's interesting that many of the same arguments the Republicans used then were used by the Democrats when opposing Reagan's tax cuts a quarter century later.)
It made for an interesting dynamic during the 50s-60s. When in control of Congress, the Democrats would increase spending (over Republican objections, usually), then when the Republicans got into power they would vote to "temporarily" raise taxes (must balance the budget, y'know), then as soon as the Dems got back in power, they'd increase spending again. (Kennedy's tax cuts led to the economic expansion that paid for Johnson's war on poverty.) IIRC it was Nixon who finally brought the process to a halt... saying in effect, "raise spending all you want, guys, but the Republicans won't get suckered into paying for it." Then when inflation took off, he imposed the wage/price freeze. Aarghh!
By the way, no one's said so, but yes, Ara is quite correct.
It should also be remembered that Kennedy cut the top income tax rate by 20 percentage points for "the rich," and only 14 percentage points for medium and lower-income brackets. Compare to Bush's tax cuts, which lowered taxes on all brackets, but gave the largest cut to the poor and to the middle classes, but cut taxes on "the rich" by only 5 percentage points. And by the way, "the rich" haven't gotten their cut yet, that's not scheduled for several more years.
Ah, but the hate-mongering class warriors will have none of it. In fact, oddly enough, they claim that these "massive" tax cuts for "the rich" are causing deficits, even though "the rich" haven't gotten their cut yet. Amazing how that works. Must have something to do with The New Math or something like that...
Tremendously worded, keep up the tremendou work