President John F. Kennedy, an icon among Democrats, would be a "supply-side Republican" if he were alive today, economic analyst and radio host Larry Kudlow tells Newsmax TV.
Appearing Sunday on "The Income Generation," Kudlow told host David J. Scranton that his new book "JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity" discusses just that subject.
"John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, was the first supply-sider," Kudlow said, noting that Kennedy outlined tax cuts in 1961-62 that led to a strong economy throughout the decade.
"He cut it for the top, for the middle, for the bottom, for corporations, for capital gains," Kudlow said, "Because he believed more money in your pocket, more incentives and rewards to work and invest would boost the economy. And guess what? It did."
Republican Ronald Reagan reinstituted those same plans two decades later — again to successful results, Kudlow said.
Democrat Bill Clinton moved left with a tax-the-rich philosophy and an attempted federal takeover of healthcare, which hurt him politically. In his second term, Clinton lowered capital gains taxes and reformed welfare, leading to what Kudlow described as "Reagan's third term."
But Democrats today have completely rejected the JFK tax-cut model, he said.
"They have written his legacy out of their history, and they've all gone to the left, including Hillary Clinton as a candidate, and all she wants to do is tax," Kudlow said. "She wants to tax rich people, she wants to tax corporations, she wants to tax capital gains, she wants to tax financial transactions. I guess you could say, if it moves she wants to tax it."
Lower taxes on everyone actually stimulates economic growth, he said, by increasing jobs and wages and helping bring people out of poverty and allowing people to invest more of their money.
If annual economic growth were raised to 5 percent as it was in the 1960s the current debt-to-GDP ratio of 75 percent could be cut to about 50 percent, Kudlow said.
Kudlow said of the two major party candidates, Republican Donald Trump offers the most hope on the economy because he says he will lower taxes. Democrat Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, says she wants to raise taxes and increase regulations.
"Trump is the growth guy, Clinton is the recession person," Kudlow said.
"The Income Generation" airs on Newsmax TV every Sunday at 10 am ET.
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