The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : JFK Created the Deficits

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The New York Times printed an editorial on Sunday absolving President Obama of blame for the massive ongoing budget deficits. Instead, the Times argued that the cause of the deficits is "largely the Bush-era tax cuts" (which apparently somehow include tax cuts signed into law by Obama) as well as wars and the recession. The Times analysis was picked up and trumpeted by a number of liberal pundits, many of whom passed along this graph:

They are all wrong. Bush is not responsible for the deficits. John F. Kennedy is. He started with the tax cuts, reducing the top rate from 91 percent and signing an overall package about the same size as the Bush tax cuts.

The Kennedy-era tax cuts are largely responsible for today's deficits*. If they had never been enacted, we would be sitting on trillion-dollar surpluses as far as the eye can see.

* Successive presidents, including Obama, didn't undo them. Doesn't matter.

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

Indiana Alex| 7.26.11 @ 2:18PM

I would rather not operate under the assumption that tax cuts "cost" the government anything. Suggesting that the government has first right to the property of its citizens is not a winning position.

I think it would be easier to suggest that raising taxes, or even not cutting taxes further costs the private, productive economy.

If this Administration can make up economic statistics why can't anyone else. We should keep track of "jobs destroyed" by the policies of this Administration.

Some how I don't think it would be mindlessly repeated as "jobs saved" has been by the lap dogs reporting on this Administration.

RJ| 7.26.11 @ 2:38PM

Why stop with Kennedy? What about the colonists who protested the Stamp Tax in the 1760s? Shouldn't they be held accountable for our current debt problem? If they had just stopped whining and paid the moderate tax, there would be no problems in government finance. Whatever the case, President Chauncy Gardner is not responsible.

Clint| 7.26.11 @ 3:06PM

"When President George W. Bush took office, our national debt was $5.768 trillion. By the time Bush left office, it had nearly doubled, to $10.626 trillion. So Bush's record on deficit spending was not good at all: During his presidency, the national debt rose by an average of $607 billion a year. How does that compare to Obama? During Obama's presidency to date, the national debt has risen by an average of $1.723 trillion a year — or by a jaw-dropping $1.116 trillion more, per year, than it rose even under Bush."

Wayne | 7.26.11 @ 7:46PM

Again challenge the semantics. A tax cut is not an expense. It also helped bring in revenue, because it grew the economy. The GOP really needs to do a better job of messaging.

axbucxdu| 7.26.11 @ 11:24PM

So the progs on the left are getting so desperate that they're now publicly confabulating among themselves? They sound like their brethren nazis before the end of the war that put all their deranged hope in those rumored wonder weapons...this is their end...my only friend, their end...