In 1947, a pioneering news commentator by the name of John Cameron Swayze proposed a radio quiz program in which a panel tried to identify the person behind a famous quote.

NBC liked the idea. Listeners loved it. And the rest – as they say – is history. But since history repeats itself, here’s one reader’s attempt to bring the back the game, “Who Said That?”

“This administration pledged itself last summer to an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes to be enacted and become effective in (year omitted intentionally).

“I’m not talking about a quickie or a temporary tax cut, which would be more appropriate if a recession were imminent; nor am I talking about giving the economy a mere shot in the arm to ease some temporary complaint. I am talking about the accumulated evidence of the last five years that our present tax system, developed as it was in good part during World War II to restrain growth, exerts too heavy a drag on growth in peace time; that it siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power; that it reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment and risk-taking.”

Democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered that speech to the Economic Club of New York in December 1962. And while there’s no denying that there are no John Kennedy’s within today’s Democratic Party, one wonders just when or if the party will ever get back to its roots.

Ed Turgeon, Lewiston

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