"The debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party's embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they result from tax cuts."
David Stockman - Director of the Office of Management and Budget for U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Do you REALLY 'get that'? The high tax rate Kennedy inherited was designed to pay for the Great Depression and WWII. Kennedy faced a budget SURPLUS. Lowering the tax rate (91 percent on marginal income greater than $400,000 cut to 70 percent) made sense THEN. But it was not based on the voodoo economic dogma Reagan created.
NEWS FLASH...Reaganomics was the BIGGEST fiscal failure in American history...trickle down was REALLY trickle UP. Need proof?
Democrats today promote reasonable tax rates based on revenue requirements, not the right's "insidious doctrine"
You can save the flashy graphs and whatnot, I'm not arguing that Kennedy was a Reagan Republican (lol), or would be a Republican if he was alive in 2013. Kennedy would not relate very well to today's GOP.
However, I don't think he would be a Democrat either.
I think it's pretty undeniable that at this point both the Dems and Republicans have both become hyperpartisian, corrupt, and much more obsessed about ideology vs. rationality. As a free thinker who began to take steps to shift some of the power from the establishment back to the people, Kennedy today would be an independent.
JFKs politics would have closely followed his brother Teds
So would Roberts
Ted supported raising taxes, JFK wanted to lower taxes. Ted voted not to support South Vietnam, JFK did everything possible to support Vietnam against Communism.