“Maybe that first, gigantic deficit the Reaganites piled up was an accident, just a combination of deluded 'supply side' tax cuts and a huge bag of good stuff for the Pentagon. But pretty quickly conservatives discovered that deficits, when done correctly, did something really cool: deficits defunded the Left.” FirstsDoneLeftStuffSidesCuttingHugeTaxesAccidentsCombinationBagsDeficitReally CoolTax CutsPentagonDeluded Author:Thomas Frank
“First, the oil and gas business pays its fair share of taxes. Despite the current debate on energy taxes, few businesses pay more in taxes than oil and gas companies. The worldwide effective tax rate for our industry in 2010 was 40 percent. That's higher than the U.S. statutory rate of 35 percent and the rate for manufacturers of 26.5 percent.” FirstsEnergyPayCompanyShareIndustryHigherTaxesPercentFairsRateCurrentsOilDebateDespiteGasFair ShareOil And Gas Author:John S. Watson
“It was under Wilson, of course, that the first huge parts of the Marxist program, such as the progressive income tax, were incorporated into the American system.” FirstsCoursesHugeTaxesProgramIncomeProgressiveIncome TaxMarxistWilson Author:Robert W. Welch, Jr.
“Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own government, to levy their own taxes, and to make their own laws.... There was second, the liberty of the individual man to live his own life, within the limits of decency and decorum, as he pleased -- freedom from the despotism of the majority.” PeopleMenFirstsTwoWholeGovernmentFormLawIndividualJusticeLibertyHonorLimitsTaxesMajorityDetermineIndividualismTaxationDecencyDespotismBoonDecorum Book:Alexander Hamilton: Lapham's Quarterly - Special Issue Source: Alexander Hamilton: Lapham's Quarterly - Special Issue
“Our practical choice is not between a tax-cut deficit and a budgetary surplus. It is between two kinds of deficits: a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy; or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, increase tax revenues, and achieve -- and I believe this can be done -- a budget surplus. The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness; the second reflects an investment in the future.” FirstsBelieveKindTwoDoneChoicesI BelieveResultsEconomyCuttingAchieveTypeTaxesWasteWeaknessEconomicsIncreaseInvestmentDebtPracticalsBudgetsTemporaryTransitionTaxationRevenueDeficitInadequateBoostInertiaTax CutsSurplusUnwanted Author:John F. Kennedy
“Could America exist without an income tax? The idea seems radical, yet in truth America did just fine without a federal income tax for the first 126 years of her history.” YearsFirstsIdeasSeemsAmericaFineTaxesIncomeRadicalIncome Tax Author:Ron Paul
“Whenever you try to do good with someone else's money, you are committed to using force. How can you do good with somebody else's money, unless you first take it away from them? The only way you can take it away from them is the threat of force: you have a policeman, tax collector, who comes and takes it from them.” WayTryingFirstsForceTaxesThreatCommittedPolicemenCollectors Author:Milton Friedman
“Why, I say, that to tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection; it is plunder, and I entirely disclaim it; but I ask you to protect the rights and interests of labour generally in the first place, by allowing no free imports from countries which meet you with countervailing duties; and, in the second place, with respect to agricultural produce, to compensate the soil for the burdens from which other classes are free by an equivalent duty. This is my view of what is called "protection."” FirstsCountryAsksInterestCommunityViewsClassRightsProduceDutyProtectTaxesAdvantageBurdenProtectionSoilLabourAllowingImportsPlunderSecond Place Author:Benjamin Disraeli