OPINION:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s exit from the Democratic Party (or was he booted out?) is only the latest sign that there are no Kennedy Democrats left in positions of power in the Democratic Party.
President John F. Kennedy was a staunch anti-communist who fought against union and government corruption. He was a pro-life Catholic. He was laser-focused on faster growth and saw sweeping tax rate reductions as a step toward achieving 4% to 5% growth.
Democrats are now for higher taxes: They ignore and excuse union and government corruption, and they don’t even talk about growth. It is all income redistribution.
They should listen to Kennedy’s words of wisdom from 1960 to 1963. In 1962, he famously declared, “It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now.”
Today, you could count on one hand the number of Democrats in Washington who believe that Kennedy called for a reduction in income and capital gains taxes. Vice President Kamala Harris wants to raise every one of these rates, including doubling capital gains taxes.
This brings me to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 35th president’s nephew.
I don’t agree with many of his positions. But he is right that the party undemocratically removed him from the ballot in states. He is also right about the incestuous relationship between big government and big business.
At a dinner party, I asked him about tax policy. He replied: “I learned from my uncle [President John F. Kennedy] that cutting taxes increases prosperity.”
Ms. Harris has never learned that lesson. She should take a history lesson. After the Kennedy tax cuts — from as high as 90% to 70% and a 30% capital gains tax reduction — the economy boomed, and tax revenues soared. The budget was balanced. The chart below shows that tax revenue paid by the rich soared after these tax cuts were enacted in 1964.
Ms. Harris and my Democratic friends should educate themselves by reading Larry Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic’s wonderful book, “JFK and the Reagan Revolution.”
That book also shows that tax revenue rose after President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, which were modeled after Kennedy’s plan. What was remarkable about both these historical events is that the share of taxes paid by the rich rose after tax rates were cut. That was the “paradoxical truth” that Kennedy foresaw.
He was also famous for talking about “a rising tide of prosperity to raise all boats.” That’s far different from Democrats’ current “soak the rich” message.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was right when he said he didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the party left him. And it has sadly left behind the policy legacy of his celebrated uncle, who would likely be a Republican today.
• Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity. He also serves as an economic adviser to Donald Trump.
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