Happy 98th birthday to Bob Dole!

[THG]

A former Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate, and a former Senate Majority Leader.

God bless him and his family!

[ProudModerate2]

He is 98 years old.
Wow.
Happy Birthday.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Happy B-day Bob Dole.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

MAGA FF

[DrScholl]

You might want to re-evaluate your birthday wish because Dole says that Trump lost the election. That means he is a traitor.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/564300-bob-dole-im-a-trumper-but-im-sort-of-trumped-out

“He lost the election, and I regret that he did, but they did,” Dole said. “He had Rudy Giuliani running all over the country, claiming fraud. He never had one bit of fraud in all those lawsuits he filed and statements he made.”

[THG]

MAGA FF

Funny that you mention that- he said this about Trump today.

Bob Dole: 'I'm a Trumper' but 'I'm sort of Trumped out'

Link to the said article: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/564300-bob-dole-im-a-trumper-but-im-sort-of-trumped-out?amp

I completely agree and can relate with his sentiments, though I was never a hardcore Trumper if one whatsoever. Trump, for all his many faults, still did some good for the party electorally (WWC margins and tapping into untapped low-prop voters), but he shouldn’t run again, and should endorse the far superior DeSantis in 2024.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

MAGA FF

Funny that you mention that- he said this about Trump today.

Bob Dole: 'I'm a Trumper' but 'I'm sort of Trumped out'

Link to the said article: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/564300-bob-dole-im-a-trumper-but-im-sort-of-trumped-out?amp

I actually completely agree with his sentiments, though I was never a hardcore Trumper if one whatsoever. Trump, for all his many faults, still did some good for the party (WWC margins and tapping into untapped low-prop voters), but shouldn’t run again, and should endorse the far superior DeSantis in 2024.

Oh I get it.........and he's right.

[darklordoftech]

One of the few plains states republicans who wasn't an unabashed free trader (still too permissive on the issue for my taste, though). FF

When did he oppose free trade?

[Real Texan Politics]

Is he the oldest major party presidential loser in American history? I say major party since Strom Thurmond lived to 100 but ran as a third party challenger as a Dixiecrat in 1948.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Is he the oldest major party presidential loser in American history? I say major party since Strom Thurmond lived to 100 but ran as a third party challenger as a Dixiecrat in 1948.

Alf Landon lived to 100, too.

[pbrower2a]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

[ProudModerate2]

I became a republican because of Trump and left the GOP because the party is moving away from his ideas ...

This is all we need to know about you.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I became a republican because of Trump and left the GOP because the party is moving away from his ideas ...

This is all we need to know about you.

Yep. #HERO

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Yeah and Sandra Day O'Connor is 99 yrs old and living in El Paso Texas and everyone thinks Breyer and Feinstein are gonna to die, everyone will die but, life expectancy is increasing

This was gonna happen as we defeat death, we don't know when we are gonna die, 65 now is the age of retirement, not the age of death, like it used to be

We have cures to Diabetes and HIV now

[ProudModerate2]

I became a republican because of Trump and left the GOP because the party is moving away from his ideas ...

This is all we need to know about you.

Yep. #HERO

You spelled that wrong. Zero starts with a Z, not an H.

[Benjamin Frank]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.

He's been downhill ever since.

[Person Man]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.

He's been downhill ever since.

Being the spokesman for Viagra didn’t help.

[Mr. Smith]

Funny, I was just in his hometown a few days ago...

[ProudModerate2]

He had a campaign stop in my area in 1996.
It was just a small gathering, went to listen and afterwards with such a small crowd, I had the opportunity to shake his hand.

[OSR stands with Israel]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.

He's been downhill ever since.

What’s ironic is in a Jack Kemp biography he basically claimed during the 1988 primaries if Bob Dole was elected , then the Reagan revolution would he dead .


Bob dole after the gop defeat in 1982 also basically said : “This should put an end to Jack Kemp’s nonsense economic plans”. I think Dole  just realized later on that Kemp was right so he adopted Kemp’s economic plans.

[Benjamin Frank]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.

He's been downhill ever since.

What’s ironic is in a Jack Kemp biography he basically claimed during the 1988 primaries if Bob Dole was elected , then the Reagan revolution would he dead .


Bob dole after the gop defeat in 1982 also basically said : “This should put an end to Jack Kemp’s nonsense economic plans”. I think Dole  just realized later on that Kemp was right so he adopted Kemp’s economic plans.

Clinton had moved well ahead of Bob Dole in the polls by the time that Dole chose Kemp to be his Vice Presidential nominee.  It was basically a Hail Mary.  Of course, it didn't work out for either of them.  Dole would have lost anyway, but I don't think his heart was in the tax-cut nonsense, and Kemp got to promote his tax-cut nonsense, but by refusing to be Dole's attack dog against Clinton (the normal role for a Vice Presidential candidate) he earned the  enmity of many Republicans, probably a majority.

In regards to the economics, I don't know why this is so difficult for people to understand.

Most mainstream economists believe that total government spending and taxation is optimal at between 30-40% of GDP. Assuming that total government spending and taxation are in that range, it is as nonsensical that 'tax cuts pay for themselves' (neo-Keynesian Republicans like Jack Kemp and neo-Keynesian 'wrong about everything' economists like Greg Mankiw) as that government spending pays for itself (Post-Keynesian Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.  These beliefs are basically two sides of the same coin.

This is even more the case when involving Modern Monetary Theory which started off as the latest right wing economics scam promoted by Arthur Laffer before being embraced by some  post-Keynesians as Chartalism.

To mainstream economists, this is simply an extension of the equimarginal principle: to those who argue 'tax cuts pay for themselves' there is the declining marginal benefit of tax cuts and the rising marginal cost of either spending cuts or deficit increases.  To those who argue that 'government spending pays for itself', there is the declining marginal benefit of government spending and the rising marginal cost of either tax increases or deficit increases.

There are debates, obviously, around the best spending to optimize government spending and the correct mix of taxes, and there are debates around whether total spending should be around 30% (conservative neo classicists and Monetarists) or whether it should be around 40% (liberal neo classicists.)  

There are also debates about how large deficits and debt can be before they are unsustainable.  However, nearly all economists agree that persistent large government budget deficits are not sustainable for long.

This was even more the case in 1996, when real interest rates (the subtraction of the inflation rate from nominal interest rates) were higher than they are now.  

As much as there are differences here between liberal neo-classists and conservative neo-classists and monetarists, I think it can be easily seen that both are at least in the same ballpark of underlying assumptions.

There is plenty to debate here: the best mix of government spending, the best mix of taxes and the total amount of government spending and taxation (the 10% difference between 30% of GDP and 40% of GDP is around $2 trillion per year, not a small chunk of change in and of itself) without the voodoo economics of tax cuts paying for themselves or government spending increases paying for themselves.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

He's one of the last 5 living members of congress from the Eisenhower administration and also one of the last 3 living Senators from the Johnson administration.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Is he the oldest major party presidential loser in American history? I say major party since Strom Thurmond lived to 100 but ran as a third party challenger as a Dixiecrat in 1948.

No. Landon died younger than Thurmond but also lived to be 100.

[darklordoftech]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.

He's been downhill ever since.

What’s ironic is in a Jack Kemp biography he basically claimed during the 1988 primaries if Bob Dole was elected , then the Reagan revolution would he dead .


Bob dole after the gop defeat in 1982 also basically said : “This should put an end to Jack Kemp’s nonsense economic plans”. I think Dole  just realized later on that Kemp was right so he adopted Kemp’s economic plans.

Clinton had moved well ahead of Bob Dole in the polls by the time that Dole chose Kemp to be his Vice Presidential nominee.  It was basically a Hail Mary.  Of course, it didn't work out for either of them.  Dole would have lost anyway, but I don't think his heart was in the tax-cut nonsense, and Kemp got to promote his tax-cut nonsense, but by refusing to be Dole's attack dog against Clinton (the normal role for a Vice Presidential candidate) he earned the  enmity of many Republicans, probably a majority.

I think picking Kemp as a running mate was a concession to Republican voters and donors who didn’t trust Dole on taxes because of the history mentioned in the posts you quoted. It was like if Joe Lieberman was the Democratic nominee and he picked Ocasio-Cortez as his running mate.

[Benjamin Frank]

A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.

He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.

He's been downhill ever since.

What’s ironic is in a Jack Kemp biography he basically claimed during the 1988 primaries if Bob Dole was elected , then the Reagan revolution would he dead .


Bob dole after the gop defeat in 1982 also basically said : “This should put an end to Jack Kemp’s nonsense economic plans”. I think Dole  just realized later on that Kemp was right so he adopted Kemp’s economic plans.

Clinton had moved well ahead of Bob Dole in the polls by the time that Dole chose Kemp to be his Vice Presidential nominee.  It was basically a Hail Mary.  Of course, it didn't work out for either of them.  Dole would have lost anyway, but I don't think his heart was in the tax-cut nonsense, and Kemp got to promote his tax-cut nonsense, but by refusing to be Dole's attack dog against Clinton (the normal role for a Vice Presidential candidate) he earned the  enmity of many Republicans, probably a majority.

I think picking Kemp as a running mate was a concession to Republican voters and donors who didn’t trust Dole on taxes because of the history mentioned in the posts you quoted. It was like if Joe Lieberman was the Democratic nominee and he picked Ocasio-Cortez as his running mate.

I'm sure there was more than one factor. Part of the issue is that Bob Dole had no overarching ambition to be President other than he thought it was the next promotion on his resume.  He had been the Republican Vice Presidential candidate when he ran for President in 1980 and he had been the Republican leader in the Senate as well when he ran for President in 1988 and 1996.  When asked what he wanted to accomplish as President, he would say things like "whatever comes across my desk."

So, Jack Kemp gave him an agenda to focus on for the 1996 campaign, even though it was an agenda that ran counter to Bob Dole's lifelong beliefs in politics.