Tuesday, October 17, 2006

JFK the Supply-Sider

"Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large federal deficits on the other...[A]n economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough jobs or enough profits...It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now." - Democratic President John F. Kennedy in a December 14, 1962 speech at the Economic Club of New York.

(Note: After JFK cut taxes across the board, the inflation-adjusted economy expanded by more than 42 percent over the next seven years. The icing on the cake? During that same period, federal revenues climbed from $94 billion in 1961 to $153 billion in 1968, an increase of 62 percent (33 percent after adjusting for inflation). History is clear - tax cuts do not result in revenue cuts. As we discovered in 1961, 1981, 1997 and 2003, cutting taxes actually increases revenues. Today's tax-loving Dems might want to take a page out of JFK's playbook...)