Let’s not omit important tax history

William Bruchert, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Ron Levesque, in his Sunday letter headlined “History shows that Democrats raise taxes,” leaves out very important information regarding the history of taxes and Democrats. He writes that “the last Democratic president who didn’t raise taxes was John F. Kennedy,” and that the JFK cuts were “similar to the ones that President Bush did,” which supposedly resulted in an increase in revenue.

Mr. Levesque and right-wing pundits leave out some very important information regarding JFK’s tax plan in a pathetic attempt to defend Bush’s plan. JFK himself did not refer to them as tax cuts, but rather as “tax changes.”

JFK effectively raised taxes (and therefore revenue), despite lowering the tax rate from 90 percent to 70 percent for the richest Americans, because he simultaneously closed loopholes the rich had been using to get out of paying their fair share.

Now let’s look at one of the other tax increases instituted by Democratic presidents. Clinton raised taxes on the rich, and as a result we had eight years of record economic growth. Not only did the rich get richer, but the poor got richer as well, and we even ended up with a budget surplus.

The truth is the Democratic Party has always been the fiscally responsible party. Tax and spend? Yes, that’s true. It’s better than the unlimited “tax and borrow” policy of the Republican Party, however, which resulted in countless depressions, recessions and astronomical deficits. It’s always been the raising of taxes by the fiscally responsible Democratic Party that has gotten us out of those times.

The Republicans count on this, of course, because it gives them the ability to run for office again on the platform of “lowering taxes.” Once they get reelected, the cycle starts over.