JFK FEARS REPUBLICANS WILL CAP HIS TAX CUT BILL
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) In his State of the Union Message of January 1963, President John F. Kennedy introduced a tax cut bill calling for a $13.5 billion tax cut. On August 23, 1963, with his legislation stalled in Congress, JFK commented to Lou Harris* in a private phone call from the White House...
"I'm afraid the Republicans are going to try to put a limitation on (the tax bill). God, they're obstructionists! I haven't really talked much about them..."
JFK's proposal called for a reduction of 26% at the top and a 6% reduction at the bottom. Those Americans with the highest incomes were paying income tax at a 91% rate, while those with the lowest were paying 20%.
If enacted, the JFK tax bill would have lowered the top rate to 65% and the low rate to 14%.In addition, the corporate tax rate would have been lowered from 52% to 47%.
The goal of these proposed tax cuts was to raise personal incomes, increase consumption and capital investments resulting in increased employment.
According to Economics: Concepts and Choices, "Some economists...believe that high taxes reduce incentives to work. They suggest that people may spend more time on activities other than work if a large percentage of their income goes to taxes."
Three months after JFK's death, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the REVENUE ACT of 1964, a.k.a. the Tax Reduction Act. The act cut individual income taxes across the board by 20%, and reduced the top rate to 70% and the corporate rate to 48%. As a result, unemployment fell from 5.2% in 1964 to 3.8% in 1966.
*Louis Harris, born in New Haven, CT in 1921, studied economics at the University of North Carolina. He began work in public opinion and marketing research in 1947. Harris was the 1st presidential pollster.
LH worked in the 1960 Kennedy campaign & from 1969 to 1972 was director of the Time Magazine-Harris Poll.
SOURCE
"Economics: Concepts and Choices," Sally Meek, John Morton and Mark C. Schug, Senior Consultants, McDougal Littell, Evanston, IL., 2008.
JFK on Telephone
Oval Office
JFK Library Photo
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) In his State of the Union Message of January 1963, President John F. Kennedy introduced a tax cut bill calling for a $13.5 billion tax cut. On August 23, 1963, with his legislation stalled in Congress, JFK commented to Lou Harris* in a private phone call from the White House...
"I'm afraid the Republicans are going to try to put a limitation on (the tax bill). God, they're obstructionists! I haven't really talked much about them..."
JFK's proposal called for a reduction of 26% at the top and a 6% reduction at the bottom. Those Americans with the highest incomes were paying income tax at a 91% rate, while those with the lowest were paying 20%.
If enacted, the JFK tax bill would have lowered the top rate to 65% and the low rate to 14%.In addition, the corporate tax rate would have been lowered from 52% to 47%.
The goal of these proposed tax cuts was to raise personal incomes, increase consumption and capital investments resulting in increased employment.
According to Economics: Concepts and Choices, "Some economists...believe that high taxes reduce incentives to work. They suggest that people may spend more time on activities other than work if a large percentage of their income goes to taxes."
Three months after JFK's death, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the REVENUE ACT of 1964, a.k.a. the Tax Reduction Act. The act cut individual income taxes across the board by 20%, and reduced the top rate to 70% and the corporate rate to 48%. As a result, unemployment fell from 5.2% in 1964 to 3.8% in 1966.
*Louis Harris, born in New Haven, CT in 1921, studied economics at the University of North Carolina. He began work in public opinion and marketing research in 1947. Harris was the 1st presidential pollster.
LH worked in the 1960 Kennedy campaign & from 1969 to 1972 was director of the Time Magazine-Harris Poll.
SOURCE
"Economics: Concepts and Choices," Sally Meek, John Morton and Mark C. Schug, Senior Consultants, McDougal Littell, Evanston, IL., 2008.
JFK on Telephone
Oval Office
JFK Library Photo
