Donald Trump: Jack Kemp Republican

By Hunter Wallace

In The Wall Street Journal, Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes – both Republican establishment regulars on FOX News – are pining for a Jack Kemp Republican in 2016:

“Kemp was a pivotal political leader because, as the foremost exponent of supply-side economics, he persuaded his party and later Ronald Reagan to adopt his tax-cut plan, known as “Kemp-Roth.” The top tax rate on individual income dropped in 1981 to 50% from 70%. Then Kemp helped pioneer tax reform, and the top rate fell in 1986 to 28%. Middle-income taxpayers enjoyed similar cuts. …

Some candidates are trying. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio have put forward interesting economic plans. Even Donald Trump says he will have a tax plan shortly. Mr. Bush’s tax reform initiative, with its top rate of 28%, is especially Kemp-like. …

The Republican Party and the country do need another Jack Kemp. The GOP debates and primaries ought to be about finding one”

Mort and Fred obviously had ¡Jeb! in mind when they claim “the essence of America is the “right to rise,” but Trump goes even further down the Jack Kemp road of supply-side economics:

“As for the (ludicrous) plan itself: It’s as though Trump read a copy of the Jeb Bush plan, thought about it for a moment, and then tossed it at an underling, yelling, “We should do this, but make it more tremendous, more marvelous!” That’s pretty much what Trump is offering. Bush would cut the top income tax rate for rich people to 28 percent, Trump to 25 percent. Bush would lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, Trump to 15 percent. Bush would take 15 million Americans off the income tax rolls, Trump would take off 75 million — all of whom, according to Trump, would get “a new one page form to send the IRS saying, ‘I win.’” Oh, and while the Bush plan would lose $3 trillion over a decade — not counting economic feedback — Trump’s might lose multiples of that. No amount of “dynamic scoring” is likely to make Trump’s numbers even approach balance.”

Here’s some perspective:

Trump’s tax plan would take the top rate on individuals down to where it was – 25 percent – during Herbert Hoover’s presidency on the eve of the Great Depression. Just like in the 1920s, it is a surefire prescription for an even more powerful oligarchy and even greater extremes of wealth than what we already have today.

Do you think Millennials – the Boomerang generation – already have it bad now? Just imagine how much worse it would be with the massive spending cuts that Trump’s plan would require. Far from “taking back America,” this will only stimulate Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders-style populist movements on the back of which any number of nutty leftwing social reforms could piggyback into power.