“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now… The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy (italics mine) which can bring a budget surplus.” Kennedy understood how an expanding economy benefits everyone, poor and rich, stating, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
Bottom line: taxation is an extension of ideology. Unlike JFK, today’s “progressive” Democrats favor higher rates of taxation because they believe government is the best entity for allocating resources. Underlying this assertion is the Democrats’ assumption that most Americans are incapable of running their own lives and should defer to the “superior” wisdom of the political ruling class.
Republicans favor lower tax rates because they believe individual Americans have a far better idea of what to do with their hard-earned money than the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. They believe Americans with additional amounts of disposable income will spend and invest it, which grows the economy.
Taxation is also an extension of power. Democrats want more of it centralized in Washington, D.C. Republicans want it spread among individuals across the country. Democrats want to be the nation’s arbiters of “fairness” and “social justice.” Republicans believe fairness and social justice can be distorted beyond all recognition by elitist political ideology, so it is far better if such concepts are determined by millions of Americans free to act in their own self-interest.
Democrats want higher taxes to pursue their goals. Republicans want lower taxes so Americans can pursue their own goals. The contrast between the parties couldn’t be sharper—which is something freedom-loving Americans should remember when they head to the polls in 2010.