Face Planting on Tax Cut Propaganda

Republican politicians depend so heavily on the ignorance of their sheeple that on occasion, their own talking points come back to bite them on the butt.  This a prime example of such an occurrence, because, in their zeal to justify even more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, they have proven that the truth is the opposite of the point they wanted to make.

…John Boehner, Jim DeMint, Rush Limbaugh and Scott Brown, along with several other Republicans, have praised Democratic President John F. Kennedy as a kind of Democratic model, because one of his first acts as president was to pass a tax cut that lowered rates even for the richest Americans.

This is true. Kennedy did slash the top marginal tax rate … all the way down to 70%. And that’s just the beginning:

– The tax reform passed after Kennedy’s death cut the top marginal tax rate from 90 percent to 70 percent, twice today’s top rate of 35 percent. Kennedy explicitly called for a top rate of 65 percent, but added that it should be set at 70 percent if certain deductions weren’t phased out at the top of the income scale.

– Kennedy called for U.S. corporations to be taxed on all their profits, earned anywhere in the world, rather than the current system of allowing them to defer taxation until they bring those profits home. "The undesirability of continuing deferral is underscored where deferral has served as a shelter for tax escape through the unjustifiable use of tax havens such as Switzerland," Kennedy said in 1961. During Kennedy’s time in office, corporate taxes made up more than 20 percent of total revenue. Today, it’s less than ten percent.

– Kennedy called for cutting tax preferences for the oil and gas industries, saying in 1963 that, "while these are complex as well as controversial problems, we cannot shrink from a frank appraisal of governmental policies and tax subsidies in this area." Republicans have been adamantly opposed to cutting subsidies for oil and gas companies.

– Kennedy called for limiting itemized deductions for the rich, saying that they should receive the same benefit for things like charitable giving "as everyone else," instead of preferential treatment (which they still receive). President Obama has called for the same system since he came into office, but the GOP has derided Obama’s proposals.

Is that what Boehner and Brown and DeMint want to return to?

And if it were, what would be the outcome?

In truth, a top marginal rate of 70% was the lowest we ever had from 1936 to 1981, a period of time when the United States enjoyed strong and sustained economic growth, so much so that it’s referred to as the "long boom." The strongest economic growth we’ve seen since then occurred in the 1990s—under a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who did raise the top marginal rate, albeit not to pre-Reagan levels… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Am I the only one laughing here?  I never thought I’d say this, but I thank Boehner, DeMint, and Brown for their suggestion, and agree that we should implement Kennedy’s proposals without further delay.  I hope they bring this up during the budget planning.