10 Comments
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Bruce Bartlett's avatar

Limiting the money supply to control inflation was an improvement over balancing the budget.

Gregg Easterbrook's avatar

What a guy Kemp was — his

Life’s achievements came after he hung up his cleats. Am from Buffalo rooted for him as a child, as an adult argued politics with him and coached his grandson Joe in youth football

Bruce Bartlett's avatar

I often wonder what would have happened if he had lived. I like to think he would be the leader of the anti-Trump Republicans, but I'm just not sure if he had it in him. The trends were apparent before he died and he said nothing. I also wonder what would have happened if he hadn't left Congress in 1988. He would certainly have become Speaker instead of Newt. That would have changed the world.

Chris's avatar

He was drifting toward some sketchy politics in those late years. I prefer not to think about that scenario

Bruce Bartlett's avatar

His wife was pushing him toward religious kookism. There was history of his family being involved with Christian Science, which is almost as nutty as Scientology.

Gregg Easterbrook's avatar

That’s a good point. Very different decade with Kemp instead of newt.

Joshua Tait's avatar

That’s a great Hayakawa quote!

Brian Domitrovic's avatar

Fascinating -- from limiting the money supply (which is inimical to great growth) to corporate breaks to marginal tax cuts. I guess the Roundtable etc. did not see that a reduction in personal rates would lead to less wage demands on the part of workers.

FGM's avatar

Interesting. I didn't know that the Kemp-Roth tax cuts were conceived on a decidedly Keynesian basis. This was very different from the way they were promoted, speaking as a teen reader of Newsweek during the 1970s.

I look forward to future installments. What role did Martin Feldstein's justifications have?

Bruce Bartlett's avatar

We didn’t exactly promote the Keynesian element, but we didn’t deny it, either.