I sat glued to the radio when he tried to win the vice presidential nomination. I rooted for him as he debated Richard M. Nixon on TV.
It is because I remain a Kennedy Democrat that I won't vote for President Obama. I can't for three main reasons.
First, I think the president is dead wrong on how to raises revenues and revive the economy. I also believe that Gov. Mitt Romney, who is following JFK's approach, is right. Here is what JFK said. (As you read it, recall Joe Biden's derisive remarks to Paul Ryan: "Now, you're Jack Kennedy").
"There are a number of ways by which the federal government can meet its responsibilities to aid economic growth.
"But the most direct and significant kind of federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demand -- to cut the fetters which hold back private spending.
"It could ... be done by increasing federal expenditures more rapidly than necessary, but such a course would soon demoralize both the government and our economy.
"The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system -- and this administration pledged itself last summer to an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes to be enacted and become effective in 1963.
"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.
"(A)ny new tax legislation enacted ... should meet the following three tests:
"First, it should reduce the net taxes by a sufficiently early date and a sufficiently large amount to do the job required.
"Second, the new tax bill must increase private consumption, as well as investment... When consumers purchase more goods, plants use more of their capacity, men are hired instead of laid-off, investment increases, and profits are high.
"Corporate tax rates must also be cut to increase incentives and the availability of investment capital.
"For all these reasons, next year's tax bill should reduce personal as well as corporate income taxes: for those in the lower brackets, who are certain to spend their additional take-home pay, and for those in the middle and upper brackets, who can thereby be encouraged to undertake additional efforts and enabled to invest more capital.
"Third, the new tax bill should improve both the equity and the simplicity of our present tax system. This means the enactment of long-needed tax reforms, a broadening of the tax base, and the elimination or modification of many special tax privileges.
"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 revenues to balance our budget -- just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.
"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. ... 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) a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy, or (b) a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, increase tax revenues, and achieve, I believe -- 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." -- JFK, address to the Economic Club, Dec. 12, 1962.
The second reason, I can't vote for President Obama is because he doesn't tell the truth, and sends his surrogates to lie for him. It began with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers and continues with every unemployment report that excludes those who have given up seeking employment, as well as the series of lies about Libya, etc. I no longer have any confidence that anything he tells the American people will be the truth. Mr. Obama is the Democratic equivalent of the Richard M. Nixon.
Finally, I am tired of this president's broken promises to fix important things: Medicare and Social Security. I am tired of class warfare, and of his blaming everybody but himself. And I will not accept as the "new norm" that America grows poorer and weaker, while China gets richer and more powerful with our money.
Jack Kennedy wouldn't, and I won't.
(As a result of the JFK/LBJ tax cuts, unemployment fell from 5.2 percent in 1964 to 3.8 percent in 1966. And taxes paid by individuals rose from about $45 billion in 1964 to $60 billion in 1967.)
Posted Online: : Nov. 1, 2012 at 2:22 p. m. - Quad-Cities Online
by John Donald O'SheaCopyright 2012
John Donald O'Shea
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