Jack Kemp RIP

Jack Kemp was one of the few politicians that I really respected. I copied and pasted this article that was sent to me by a friend. I hope you enjoy it.


RAHN: The Jack Kemp I knew
Richard W. Rahn
COMMENTARY:
Arguably, without Jack Kemp, the Reagan supply-side, high-growth economic revolution would never have occurred. Mr. Kemp, a young congressman from Buffalo, N.Y., convinced Ronald Reagan and much of the nation of the wisdom of sharply cutting tax rates on labor and capital.
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he wisely endorsed a bill - the Kemp-Roth Act - to cut income tax rates 30 percent across the board. It was a radical idea, but it worked so well that not even President Obama is proposing a return to the 70 percent marginal tax rate that existed in 1980.
Jack Kemp was a very successful quarterback for the Buffalo Bills who then was elected to Congress. Mr. Kemp was a natural-born leader. He had a forceful physical presence and a quick intellect, and was a gifted orator.
At that time, Republicans were mired in an uninspiring debate about how much to cut the budget rather than how to reignite economic growth and job creation. Mr. Kemp intuitively understood that just cutting budgets was neither a political nor economic winner for the Republicans or the country.
As the son of parents who built a successful small trucking company, Jack Kemp understood the difficulties entrepreneurs face in building any business, and that destructive tax and regulatory policies can become insurmountable hurdles for most.
In the mid-1970s, Mr. Kemp assembled a group of highly talented economists and economic writers for advice and ideas. The group included Robert Mundell, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in economics, and Art Laffer of the Laffer Curve fame. Norman Ture, Paul Craig Roberts, Steve Entin and Bruce Bartlett were advisers who later served as officials of the U.S. Treasury. Bob Bartley, who was editor of the Wall Street Journal, and Jude Wanniski of the Journals editorial page were also key advisers.
Despite an absence of formal education in economics, Mr. Kemp had been reading economic textbooks and studies and became an intense and incisive questioner of his advisers in order to formulate his own ideas and clarify his thoughts. Mr. Laffer was teaching at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles in the late 1970s. He would occasionally take the "red-eye" into Washington, arriving at about 5:30 a.m., and I would pick him up at Dulles Airport and take him to Mr. Kemp's home in Bethesda. There, Jack, dressed in his bathrobe, would cook breakfast for us while peppering Art with questions and challenging his assertions.
Later in the day, the Kemp economic team would often meet in Art's hotel in D.C. to discuss policy ideas and how best to explain the tax plan to other Republicans, business people, those in the media and the public at large.
Jack had the remarkable ability to take economic truths and make them understandable to everyone - "You cannot hate the employer and love the employee." No one was better than Jack in explaining how all benefit from a bigger economic pie. In his own words, he was "a bleeding-heart conservative," and he understood that without rapid job creation the poor and many minorities would not have a chance for better lives.
Jack was a tax-cutting zealot, not because of some abstract philosophical notion, but because he clearly understood how high tax rates reduced the incentives and capital needed for job creation - "How many truck drivers do you have if you cannot afford trucks?"
Despite the charges from his left-wing critics, Jack never argued that all tax cuts pay for themselves, but he did believe that modest deficits were preferable to high tax rates that killed growth. Unlike most other Republicans and almost all Democrats, Jack did have a plan for getting the United States out of the stagflation of the late 1970s under the Carter administration, where there was little growth and a 13.5 percent inflation rate. The Keynesians of the time favored monetary expansion to reduce interest rates and high tax rates to contain inflation. Mr. Kemp and his advisers argued that the Keynesians had it all backward and the solution was to reduce tax rates to spur the economy and restrain growth in the money supply to reduce inflation.
Mr. Kemp successfully sold this idea to Ronald Reagan, who made it the core of his successful 1980 presidential campaign. (In his unsuccessful 1976 campaign, Mr. Reagan had emphasized cutting spending rather than cutting taxes.) With Mr. Kemp leading the charge in Congress, the tax cut plan was passed, the economy soared (7.2 percent in 1984) beyond anyones expectations, and federal tax revenues came in at a much higher level than either the critics or the supporters of the tax cut expected. Mr. Reagan and Mr. Kemp supported Paul Volcker at the Fed, who did the necessary wringing out of inflation by restricting monetary growth in the early 1980s, even though many politicians of both parties were screaming for monetary expansion.
There has been no politician in recent decades with a better understanding of the consequences of economic policy than Jack Kemp.
Mr. Kemp, unlike those in the current administration and the congressional Democratic majority, knew that without sound money and low tax rates, we could not have a vibrant economy. Much of the prosperity and job creation we had in the quarter-century from 1983 to 2007 can be directly attributable to the remarkable efforts and economic salesmanship of Jack F. Kemp.
We have lost Jack's voice for his enduring economic principles, just when we need them more than ever.
Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth

Arrogant Americans?

Arrogant Americans, Mr. President?
Peter Heck - Guest Columnist - 4/14/2009 7:50:00 AM


As I was sitting in church waiting for the start of the service, my grandpa came walking towards me pointing his finger. No matter how old I get, and no matter how long he's been out of the U.S. Navy, that's still an intimidating sight. As he approached me, his voice quivered as he said, "We saved that continent twice...how dare my president apologize for this country's arrogance." My grandpa is right. Americans need not apologize to the world for their arrogance; rather, Americans should apologi ze to their forefathers for the arrogance of their president. Barack Obama's first foreign trip as President of the United States has confirmed the naiveté so many of us feared during the election cycle. But worse than that, it has also demonstrated that our president suffers from either a complete misunderstanding of our heritage and history, or an utter contempt for it. Neither is excusable.
Garnering cheers from the French of all people, President Obama declared, "In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." Consider that Obama spoke these words just 500 miles from the beaches of Normandy, where the sand is still stained with 65-year-old blood of "arrogant Americans." Indeed, columnist Mark Whittington observes, "One should remind Mr. Obama and the European s how America has 'shown arrogance' by saving Europe from itself innumerable times in the 20th Century. World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the wars in the Balkans were largely resolved by American blood, treasure, and leadership." But all that appears lost on the president's seemingly insatiable quest to mend fences he imagines have been tarnished by the bullish George W. Bush. If Obama wishes to continue trampling the presidential tradition of showing class to former office holders and publicly trash Bush for his own personal gain, so be it. But all Americans should make clear that no man – even if he is the president – will tarnish the legacy of those Americans who have gone before us. Ours is not a history of arrogance. It is a history of courage, self-sacrifice, and honor. When abusive monarchs repressed the masses, Americans resisted and overthrew them. When misguided policies led to the unjust oppression of fellow citizens, Americans rebelled and overturned them. When millions of impoverished and destitute wretches sought a new beginning, Americans threw open the door and welcomed them. When imperial dictators were on the march, Americans surrendered their lives to stop them. When communist thugs threatened world peace, Americans bled to defeat them. When an entire continent was overwhelmed with famine and hunger, Americans gave of themselves to sustain it. When terrorist madmen killed the innocent and subjugated millions, Am ericans led the fight to topple them. This is the legacy that generations of Americans have left. If President Obama seeks stronger relations with the world community, perhaps he should begin by reminding them of these very truths, rather than condemning his own countrymen on foreign shores. This "obsessive need to put down his own country," has caused blogger James Lewis to call President Obama a "stunningly ignorant man" who has evidently never spoken to a concentration camp survivor, a Cuban refugee, a boat person from Vietnam, a Soviet dissident, or a survivor of Mao's purges. Unfortunately, I can no longer bring myself to give Mr. Obama that benefit of the doubt. Not after looking at the pain in my grandpa's eyes...a man who still carries shrapnel in his body from his service to this country. As a student and teacher of history, I recognize that America has made mistakes...plenty of them, in fact. But one of the great things about our people has been their courage and humility in admitting and correcting those mistakes. God willing, they will prove that willingness again in four years and correct the mistake that is the presidency of Barack Obama.

NFL Hope and Change

Steelers to lose Super Bowl Trophies

Pittsburgh, PA. The Super Bowl XLIII Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the only team to win six titles, will soon be loosing half of those trophies. After a meeting between NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodel and President Barack Hussein Obama, Obama decided to redistribute half of their Steelers' Super Bowl victories and trophies to less fortunate teams in the league.
“We live everyday in the country that invented the Super Bowl.” said Obama. “We are not about to lose this Great American tradition in the wake of these difficult times.” Obama’s plan calls for the Steelers, who are a successful NFL team, to give half of their Super Bowl trophies to teams that are not successful or have not been as successful as the Steelers. “The Detroit Loins are just as much a part of the same fiber of the NFL as the Steelers and they should, no rather will, be entitled to a Super Bowl Trophy as well.” Obama explains in his plan that he has imposed on Goodel and the NFL.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, who by virtue of hard work, excellent team play, stellar draft choices, responsible investing of free agents, careful hiring of coaches and excellent community service and commitment to their fans, has prospered greatly during the past 30 years and have won six Super Bowl Trophies. But President Barack Hussein Obama’s plan calls for the Pittsburgh Steelers to carry the larger burden of the NFL’s less successful teams. Obama went on to further proclaim, “In these difficult times we are all in this to work together. We must reclaim the NFL Championship Dream for every team, for every city and for every fan.”
“My plan will not affect 31 of the 32 teams in the league.” Obama assures. That’s over 95 percent of the teams in the NFL will not have to worry about loosing any Super Bowl Trophies. “The worst teams in the NFL and the teams that can’t seem to get a break and win a championship will no longer have to worry about going without a title.” Obama promises. “We are a country and league of hope. We all need to make a change. It does not matter the color of the teams uniforms, the personal decisions that the teams make or their performance but rather if they are a member of this great American league.”
The Super Bowl XLIII trophy will be redistributed to the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Through no fault of their own incompetence, the Lions could not manage a victory all season and this trophy will help ease the pain of their lack of performance and give them hope once again. The redistribution of Super Bowl XL trophy will go directly to the Steeler’s division rival the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals who also have fallen on hard times have never won a Super Bowl. This vic tory will bring a smile to hundreds of Bengal fans all over the world as they can now celebrate. Finally, one of the Steeler’s two Super Bowl victories over the Dallas Cowboys will go back to the Cowboys since the league needs to provide hope in the face of difficulty and provide hope in the face of uncertainty. This is a heavy burden for the Steelers but together we can all prosper.
All hope is not lost for Pittsburgh fans, Barack Hussein Obama has another plan in place. Obama has meet with MLB and commissioner Bud Selig on a similar plan. The New York Yankees will redistribute two of their world series trophies to the Pittsburgh Pirates as a supplement to their loosing 16 straight seasons and counting. This plan will help stimulate the Pirates and enable them to regain the American Dream. Barack Hussein Obama will be meeting with the NHL and Michael Phelps in the upcoming weeks as this issue is high on his agenda for “Hope and Change.”Obama provides hope to NFL teams. Steelers must now share their wealth and fruits of their success and hard work
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