jmog;645089 wrote:What's funny is that JFK, a democrat, stood for everything most conservatives do today and hardly anything that liberals do.
I mean I don't know where you come up with this.
He thought at top individual tax rate of 65% was justified and a top corporate tax rate of 47% all higher than rates any Congressional democrats see as desirable. He also wanted to eliminate the deferral of tax that is inherent in our international tax regime; something the Chamber of Commerce is vehemently opposed to. His "New Frontier" domestic agenda would be accosted by republicans. He got rid of tight monetary and fiscal policies and ran the first non-war, non-recession deficit. He damn near went to war with the U.S. steel industry and used his administration's power to prevent the steel industry from raising prices despite it being projected that the steel industry's raising of the price would have resulted in a net gain for U.S. GDP.
He expanded unemployment benefits, increased aid to cities and states for public housing and public transportation, increased the federal role in education, increased income earned by farmers, increased medical care for the elderly and he signed a bill trying to prevent water pollution. He first introduced a bill that would go on to be medicare but it wasn't passed.
His goal going in was to eradicate poverty; something Republicans find to be fruitless.
A significant amount of anti-poverty legislation was passed by Congress, including increases in social security benefits and in the minimum wage, several housing bills, and aid to economically distressed areas. A few antirecession public works packages, together with a number of measures designed to assist farmers, were introduced. Major expansions and improvements were made in Social Security (including retirement at 62 for men), hospital construction, library services, family farm assistance and reclamation. Food stamps for low-income Americans were reintroduced, food distribution to the poor was increased, and there was an expansion in school milk and school lunch distribution. The most comprehensive farm legislation since 1938 was carried out, with expansions in rural electrification, soil conservation, crop insurance, farm credit, and marketing orders. He increased the amount of workers in all of his federal agencies through his own executive power. He reduced the rates on FHA loans drastically and liberalized the federal lending for housing (the drum beat that conservatives lead for what caused our current financial crisis).
All told, in such a short time, he expanded the role of the federal government more in such a short time than at any point since the thirties and the New Deal (which is supposed to be the beginning of our demise). Despite all of that, GDP grew at an average rate of 5.5% from 1961-1966 with inflation remaining at a steady 1% which has not been repeated since.
If Kennedy had served a full time or hell, two terms...America might well have been the world that Republicans hide under their covers at night in fear of.
In truth, President Kennedy was a blue blooded progressive but also a reasonable one who understood that a strong capitalistic system with strong safety nets was preferable. He epitomized the position that the Federal government has a powerful and useful role and that if done wisely it can assist the virtues of capitalism and a free-market system. The idea that modern conservatives try to "claim" him when he is the antithesis to all of their widely pronounced philosophical positions is ludicrous. It really amazes me. Because he supported cutting tax rates from 20-90% to 14-67% he's Sean Hannity or something when no modern democrat would ever propose a rate structure of 14-67%. BHO desired 39.6 for the top rate and he was maligned as the manchurian candidate spawn of Karl Marx with a secret desire to undermine American exceptionalism so that he may grow spiritually closer to his dead father....
