Right Wing Radicals

Yeah, maybe we are kooky old men, but at least we remember some history.

When we call Barack Obama a communist, we are soundly scolded. Why would we come up with that foolishness? We remember an old saying suggesting that if something "looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck" you can quit searching for further identification; IT IS A DUCK.

Listen to Obama in his recent news conference: "I refuse to give tax cuts to rich people who don't need them." Who don't need them? Where have we heard that sort of quacking before? Oh, Yes,  "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." That was Karl Marx, father of Communism. Only Communists believe governments should decide what their citizens need. Rich folks don't need tax cuts? Says who?

Okay, if rich folks don't need to have their taxes cut, who does need for rich folks to have their taxes cut? The answer is, all the rest of us. John F. Kennedy, an icon of the Democratic Party who pushed for deep tax cuts, argued, "A rising tide lifts all boats." Urging a tax rate cut, Kennedy said: "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. The experience of a number of European countries has borne this out. This country's own experience with tax reductions 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 full employment. The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budgetary deficit but to achieve the more prosperous expanding economy which will bring a budgetary surplus."

Economist Art Laffer researched history and came up with the Laffer Curve. A graphic way of illustrating his findings, it clearly showed that as tax rates decreased, tax revenues increased. History.

Two time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, David McCullough, widely acclaimed as a “master of the art of narrative history,” was interviewed on CBS Television's 60 Minutes. He deplored American's lack of knowledge of history. We old right wing radicals concur. How sad that lessons we learned, often with considerable pain, must be re-learned.