The Week

The royal progress of President and Mrs. Kennedy through the province of Mexico has concluded in “a triumph in the establishment of better relations between Mexico and the United States,” as the New York Times announces. What? Were the relations poor before? Didn’t the Mexicans already know that Jack and Jackie 1) are of average proportions, dolichocephalic, white-toothed, and handsome; 2) are 98.6° Fahrenheit; 3) can smile, and 4) between them, can get along in Spanish? Yes indeed: the Mexicans knew all that before, and they didn’t learn anything more than that from the royal visitation. For that matter, when the world is at rest, kings stay home; and the dissolution of the West seems to proceed in direct ratio to the mileage we put on our rulers. The Times, and anyone else who thinks a fiesta is a triumph of diplomacy, have succumbed to the Whoopee School of International Affairs. And let it be forecast right now: if, as many observers say, Mexico advances on Communism, the Whoopee School won’t learn its lesson. It’ll simply call for another fiesta. Na vashe zdorovye, amigos!

Just about everybody is talking tax cuts now, and when such odd colleagues as Walter Reuther and the Chamber of Commerce seem to agree, there’s need for definition. Reuther and his type have called for tax cuts in the lower brackets, in order to increase demand (an unproven hypothesis), create a stimulating deficit (unproven), keep soaking the rich (the economic benefits of which are unproven), and make friends with the masses (this much, alas, is proven). The Chamber of Commerce would make deeper cuts at the top than at the bottom in order to free funds for investment (to provide jobs: a proven connection) , attract funds to useful (and taxable) employ (thus offsetting rapidly the probable initial deficit), and stimulate the more productive minds to further production (the only road to economic growth). Tax reform and tax reduction are long overdue. It should be obvious that there is less need for reform as the rates get lower; and those conservatives who would keep tax rates high merely to avoid a temporary deficit are ignoring the probability that lower rates would stimulate enough new business to regain the initial tax loss and then some—and are ignoring the common experience of every country that has lowered its rates while increasing its total tax revenues. What are we waiting for?

Featured Tags

William F. Buckley Jr.

Courts

Free Speech

The royal progress of President and Mrs. Kennedy through the province of Mexico has concluded in “a triumph in the establishment of better relations between Mexico and the United States,” as the New York Times announces. What? Were the relations poor before? Didn’t the Mexicans already know that Jack and Jackie 1) are of average proportions, dolichocephalic, white-toothed, and handsome; 2) are 98.6° Fahrenheit; 3) can smile, and 4) between them, can get along in Spanish? Yes indeed: the Mexicans knew all that before, and they didn’t learn anything more than that from the royal visitation. For that matter, when the world is at rest, kings stay home; and the dissolution of the West seems to proceed in direct ratio to the mileage we put on our rulers. The Times, and anyone else who thinks a fiesta is a triumph of diplomacy, have succumbed to the Whoopee School of International Affairs. And let it be forecast right now: if, as many observers say, Mexico advances on Communism, the Whoopee School won’t learn its lesson. It’ll simply call for another fiesta. Na vashe zdorovye, amigos!

Just about everybody is talking tax cuts now, and when such odd colleagues as Walter Reuther and the Chamber of Commerce seem to agree, there’s need for definition. Reuther and his type have called for tax cuts in the lower brackets, in order to increase demand (an unproven hypothesis), create a stimulating deficit (unproven), keep soaking the rich (the economic benefits of which are unproven), and make friends with the masses (this much, alas, is proven). The Chamber of Commerce would make deeper cuts at the top than at the bottom in order to free funds for investment (to provide jobs: a proven connection) , attract funds to useful (and taxable) employ (thus offsetting rapidly the probable initial deficit), and stimulate the more productive minds to further production (the only road to economic growth). Tax reform and tax reduction are long overdue. It should be obvious that there is less need for reform as the rates get lower; and those conservatives who would keep tax rates high merely to avoid a temporary deficit are ignoring the probability that lower rates would stimulate enough new business to regain the initial tax loss and then some—and are ignoring the common experience of every country that has lowered its rates while increasing its total tax revenues. What are we waiting for?