Senate Race in Massashusetts

Being a resident of Massachusetts I have remained embarrassingly aloof of the race currently going on to fill Ted Kennedy's senate seat. This is partially due to the fact that there is no third-party candidate running, aside from the Libertarian (who interesting claims to be the 'tea party' candidate) Joseph Kennedy (no relation to the Kennedy family). I can't muster the support for any of the candidates, although I passively hope that the Democratic candidate Martha Coackley wins seeing her as the lesser of the evils running (not to mention she started out as the district attorney from my county), but I would recommend voting for Kennedy or writing in a candidate to protest the lack of choice presented.

With that said my interest in the race was recently sparked by a video posted by the Republican candidate Scott Brown. In the video clever editing is used in order to juxtapose a clip of president John F. Kennedy announcing his planned tax cuts with the candidate Brown elaborating on the positive effect these cuts would have for the economy. From a propaganda perspective, this tactic could prove to be very effective for the candidate. The Kennedy name has a lot of weight in Massachusetts and by portraying himself as a Representative of JKF's values (something he certainly could not due with Ted Kennedy) he successfully can make use of this influcence.

This, however, does not account for the fact that the connection of those tax cuts to modern reality are historically false. The top bracket income tax today is around half of what it was in 1963 when Kennedy proposed his tax cuts. Not to mention that wealth has become more concentrated in the top tier since then and the tax cuts were proposed during a time of relative economic prosperity, quite different from today.

This argument follows in a similar vein to the one that is heard quite often today, that tax cuts will result in economic prosperity, something that it seems the Bush administrations policies seem to contradict. This argument also ignores the fact that President Obama's far too small stimulus was significantly comprised of tax cuts.

I am no expert on this issue, but I generally subscribe to a Keynesian view of this subject. It seems to me that at a time of economic distress (like the past few years), private interests will be less willing to spend money due to financial precarity and that tax cuts (especially when directed at corporations and the rich) serve only to take money away from essential public institutions.

But like I said I'm not expert and would be very interested in reading suggestion and a discussion on this issue.