Kondracke: Jack Kemp Would Side With Boehner, Like Trump Tax Plan

Former Congressman and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp would have sided with outgoing House Speaker John Boehner in his battles with the tea party, and would have liked Donald Trump's tax plan, Kemp biographer Morton Kondracke tells "Newsmax TV." 

Kondracke, author of the new book "Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America," appeared Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."

Kondracke calls Kemp the most influential politician of the 20th century who was not president. Kemp promoted supply-side economics long before Ronald Reagan, and even sold Reagan on the idea, Kondracke said.

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But Kemp hated fighting, even with members of the opposite party, Kondracke said, and would not have been happy with the tea party coalition going after Boehner.

"When Newt Gingrich, for example, went after Jim Wright, he was one of the leaders of the Republican conference. He didn't like it," Kondracke said. "Newt Gingrich was a friend of his, but he did not like this personal kind of attack. He would've been deeply distressed for the tea party."

Before he died in 2009, Kemp was unhappy with the direction of the Republican Party, Kondracke said. "He was the true compassionate conservative and he wanted the Republican Party to be the party of Lincoln: pro-civil rights, big tent, the government not interfering with people's ability to rise, but to help them rise."

Kemp was pro-life but likely wouldn't want to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding – or for anything else, Kondracke said.

But Kemp also would have opposed President Barack Obama's policies, Kondracke said.

"In the end, he became a softy on foreign policy. He did not like W's war in Iraq at all. But even he would have to say that Obama's been weak on foreign policy," he said. "He would have been in favor of some sort of a healthcare plan that was much more market-oriented than Obama's."

Trump and Kemp are very different politically, but do have some similarities, Kondracke said.

Trump's just-unveiled tax policy is "the first good thing Kemp would say that Trump was in favor of," he said.

Kemp was in favor of citizenship for illegal immigrants and free trade, and never disparaged opponents, he said. "Trump is exactly the opposite of everything that Kemp stood for except for this tax thing and high energy. Kemp was a house afire."

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