RIP, Jack Kemp

In the obituary of former Republican VP candidate Jack Kemp is his statement that the country

“[is suffering from a] tax code that rewards consumption, leisure, debt and borrowing, and punishes savings, investment, work and production.”

Sounds like a great argument for a carbon tax shift, not all that different from the "tax what we burn, not what we earn" philosophy of Al Gore. (Sadly, Kemp would almost certainly not have agreed: he was keen on cutting taxes, and to heck with balancing the budget.)

PS #1: Funny exchange between Kemp and Bob Dole (some time before Dole picked his as his 1996 VP candidate):

Dole: “Kemp wants a business deduction for hair spray.”
Kemp: “In a recent fire, Bob Dole’s library burned down. Both books were lost. And he hadn’t even finished coloring one of them.”

PS #2: Also funny (and much less hack) was Kemp's take on being a football star:

“Pro football gave me a good sense of perspective to enter politics: I’d already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded and hung in effigy.”