History shows that three of our first five presidents died on the fourth of July - John Adams & Thomas Jefferson within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after July 4, 1776 & James Monroe on July 4, 1831.
But only one president was born on July 4 - Calvin Coolidge on July 4, 1872.
Following all of the principles of supply-side economics President Coolidge presided over one of the strongest periods of economic growth, prosperity, & a rising standard of living in American history.
The income tax, ratified by the 16th Amendment in 1913, was supposed to be a flat tax with a single rate of 4% but it quickly changed to a graduated tax of 1% to 7% with the income brackets determined by the ability to pay. By 1921 Congress had raised the top marginal rate from 7% to 73%. President Coolidge was the only president to follow all of the supply-side economic principles: 1) the reduction of the size of government & its claims on earned income, 2) a lower marginal tax rate for the highest income earners, & 3) sound-money policies – the gold standard. Silent Cal reduced the top 73% income tax rate to 25% by 1925, reduced the national debt, & balanced the budget – a budget that actually was smaller when he left office than when he took office. Federal spending was 3% of GDP in 1928 – it is 24.2% today.
The Coolidge administration emphasized limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise & came to power soon after the anti-American progressive movement started to take shape under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Wilson had nothing but disdain for the relevance of the Founders & our founding documents to his way of life - he promoted the progressive idea that human nature is changeable & that each generation should define liberty, rights, & equality for itself rather than refer to what the Founders thought of as universal, timeless, permanent, & immutable principles listed @ the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. In short, Wilson wanted to move beyond the principles & practices of the American founding.
Below is an excerpt from President Coolidge's July 4, 1926 speech on the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence that debunks Wilson's progressive theories. The points from the speech can still be used today to counter arguments to slow the speed of our ever increasing progressive world.
Excerpt from President Coolidge's 1926 Independence Day Speech:
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
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