JFK: Supply-Side Economics

In the 1950s and early 1960s, the highest marginal income tax rate in the U.S. was 91% (see graph above). President John F. Kennedy was elected to office in November 1960, in the middle of a recession that lasted from April 1960 to February 1961.

In his tax message to Congress, Kennedy asked that the top income tax rate be brought down from 91% to 65%. His goal was to reduce all statutory income tax rates by about 30%, including a reduction in the bottom tax rate from 20% to 14%. Subsequently, Congress only reduced the top rate to 70%, when Kennedy's tax reform package passed after his assasination.

Watch Kennedy argue here for cutting tax rates to stimulate economic growth, he sounds like a real supply-sider.