GOP Congressman, GHW Bush cabinet member, one-time veep candidate ('96), supply-sider, and anti-tax crusader Jack Kemp has died.
Kemp was one of the first and most prominent proponents of the idea that tax cuts stimulate the economy. He was the primary architect of Reaganomics; the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 is also known as the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut. It's not an understatement to say we owe him a huge debt for modern-day Republican economic policy. Pun intended.
In other ways, Kemp's advocacy didn't look much like the modern GOP. Although he opposed legal abortion (of course), he supported immigration reform that included guest-worker programs, he was a proponent of racial equality, and believed government had a role to play in lifting people from poverty. But, a Republican is always a Republican (unless zie's Arlen Specter), and Kemp helped raise money for Scooter Libby's defense when he was charged with perjury and obstruction in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Kemp was also a former NFL footballer who rather famously said soccer sucks.
If I am wrong and Mr. Kemp was right and there is an afterlife, may he be greeted to it with precisely as much compassion as he showed others during his lifetime.
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