I remember so clearly sitting in Jack Kemp’s congressional office in Washington with Howard Jarvis in the early 1980s, Kemp making a fist, and considering earnestly in his raspy voice, how to “get hold of the (Republican) Convention in ’88.” He was already thinking ahead to a run for the presidency, anticipating a second term by President Ronald Reagan, then a continuation of the Reagan Revolution under Jack Kemp.
And why not? The Reagan Revolution built its foundation in part on the work Kemp did in promoting economic growth through tax cuts and supply-side economics. Author of the Kemp-Roth tax cut bill in Congress with Delaware Senator William Roth; the bill was a forerunner to the Reagan tax cuts in the president’s first term. Kemp was a believer in supply-side economics, tax cuts and enterprise zones advocating economic growth as a way to raise up the poor.
Kemp was a strong supporter of ‘big tent’ Republicanism hoping to bring more minorities into the Republican Party and arguing that the tax policies and economic growth he advocated would benefit minorities in the long run. Many times I heard Kemp speak with preacher-like intensity, whether to a large audience or to two or three people standing in a room, about reaching out to all citizens in advocating free market policies.
Kemp’s ideas and rhetoric were an inspiration to many Republicans who wanted to create a more prosperous country and, at the same time, appeal to a broad number of Americans.
The recent debate about the Republicans Party’s current direction could use a dose of Kemp’s perspective.
Born in Los Angeles, Kemp’s California roots ran deep despite representing the Buffalo, NY area in Congress for eighteen years. Kemp played football at Occidental College and went on to a pro career that included a stint with the Los Angeles (now San Diego) Chargers before making his mark with the Buffalo Bills. While a football player, Kemp served as an intern in Governor Reagan’s office. And, in 2007 he established the Jack F. Kemp Institute for Political Economy at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy in Malibu.
At the twentieth anniversary of Proposition 13, Kemp was interviewed for a television show and he credited the tax cutting measure with giving a boost to his goals: “There is no doubt that Prop 13 and its passage in 1978 led to the Reagan tax cuts…also led, in my opinion, to Margaret Thatcher adopting tax cuts in the U. K. It was the most important popular, small ‘d’ democratic, grassroots referendum movement where people said ‘enough’.”
The last time I saw Jack was at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy dinner in the Fall of 2007, in which his Institute was announced. Reminding him of my many visits to his office with Jarvis in the early days of the Reagan administration with so many changes taking place that he helped map out, Kemp recalled fondly those “exciting times” when after years of his planting bold, new ideas he witnessed the seeds finally bearing fruit.
Kemp’s passions for inclusiveness and for economic growth through smart tax policy remain gold standard policies, which should be heeded today. That would be a fitting memorial to the man.