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Taxes Quotes

“God forbid that Americans earning, say, more than $1 million a year be asked to pony up a little more in taxes to support a larger military at a time when, we are told over and over, the country is in the middle of a war on terror. Millionaires can't be asked to sacrifice even just a little bit. No, they deserve to have their taxes cut while others fight and die.”

Years Littles War Country Dies Fighting Bits Millions Support Cutting Sacrifice Middle Military Taxes Little Bit Deserve Terror Earning Millionaire War On Terror Tax Cuts Ponies

Author:E. J. Dionne

“Budget cuts if you're not rich, tax cuts if you are. Less money for those who don't have any and more to those who do. That's how President Fredo says we're going to get out of the giant deficit hole he's dug. You can't put it any more simply. Rich people richer. Poor people poorer.”

People Ifs President Poor Rich Cutting Taxes Holes Budgets Giants Poor People Deficit Rich People Tax Cuts Budget Cuts

Author:Will Durst

“If you're living hand-to-mouth, and still buying into the con that the big threats to America are socialized medicine, Mexican immigrants and tax increases, then you're not being kept down by the rich. You're being kept down by you.”

Ifs Stills Hands Bigs America Rich Taxes Mouths Increase Medicine Threat Buying Immigrants Mexican Tax Increases Socialized Medicine

Author:Bill Maher

“Most people in America understand that the rich people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay all the taxes.”

People Should America Pay Rich Figures Taxes Rich People Accountants

Author:George W. Bush

“In constitutional states, liberty is compensation for heavy taxes; in dictatorships, the subsititue is light taxes.”

States Light Liberty Taxes Heavy Dictatorship Compensation

Author:Baron de Montesquieu

“A Progressive is one who is in favor of more taxes instead of less, more bureaus and jobholders, more paternalism and meddling, more regulation of private affairs and less liberty. In general, he would be inclined to regard the repeal of any tax as outrageous.”

Would Be Liberty Taxes Regard Affair Favors Progressive Regulation Outrageous Meddling Paternalism

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them only because 'they necessitate further inroads' upon the capitalist system and are 'unavoidable' as a means of bringing about socialism.”

Mean Taxes Income Socialism Progressive Capitalist Income Tax Engels

Author:Ludwig von Mises

“Every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later. . . . Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property and mind in its clutches from infancy. An octopus would sooner release its prey. A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.”

Source: God of the Machine

“The biggest roadblock to middle-class economic advancement is that governments confiscate more than a third of all family income. Each year the average American taxpayer works 127 days - from January 1 until May 7 - just to pay taxes.”

Years May Government Pay Class Economic Middle Taxes Thirds Average Income Middle Class Advancement Taxpayers January Roadblock January 1

Author:Thomas DiLorenzo

“It makes no difference to a widow with her savings in a 5 percent passbook account whether she pays 100 percent income tax on her interest income during a period of zero inflation or pays no income tax during years of 5 percent inflation. Either way, she is 'taxed' in a manner that leaves her no real income whatsoever. Any money she spends comes right out of capital. She would find outrageous a 100 percent income tax but doesn't seem to notice that 5 percent inflation is the economic equivalent.”

Way Years Real Seems Interest Differences Pay Economic Periods Taxes Percent Accounts Income Saving Zero Inflation Savings Outrageous Widows Income Tax

Author:Warren Buffett

“Social Security is a widely popular program because the individual has been deceived by the Statist to believe that the government has been prudently and diligently managing his accumulated pension investment in his Social Security account, which he presumes to be funded by his own payroll taxes.”

Believe Has Beens Government Individual Social Security Taxes Program Accounts Investment Social Security Deceived Pension Payroll Payroll Tax

Book:Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

Source: Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

“Whenever government assumed responsibility for the security, welfare, and prosperity of citizens, the costs of government rise beyond the point where it is politically expedient to cover them by direct tax levies.”

Government Responsibility Security Citizens Cost Taxes Direct Prosperity Welfare

Author:Leonard Read

“The government does not add value to the economy. It removes value from the economy by imposing taxes on one citizen and providing cash to another.”

Doe Government Values Economy Citizens Taxes Add Remove Cash Providing Imposing

Author:Mark Levin

“Government, not the oil industry, is the biggest 'profiteer' from oil. And it uses the tax revenue to expand its own authority at the expense of the individual, as it does with an endless number of other industries - including electric power, coal, lumber, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, aircraft, and agriculture. The Statist's intrusion to the free market is boundless.”

Source: Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

“The oil industry is hardly free to operate as efficiently as it could or to be as responsive to consumer demands as it would like. It has become, in essence, a quasi-state-run enterprise, because it cannot drill, transport, refine, and store fuel without receiving government permission, complying with government regulations, and paying taxes at every level or production.”

Source: Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

“States with high and rising tax burdens are more likely to suffer economic decline; those with low and falling tax burdens are more likely to enjoy strong economic growth.”

States Suffering Fall Strong Enjoy Growth Economic Taxes Lows Burden Rising Decline Economic Growth Tax Burden

Author:Lawrence Kudlow

“Tariffs protect ill-considered government policies, such as costly regulations and high taxes on labor and capital that make our goods uncompetitive in international markets.”

Government Policy Protect Taxes Labor International Ill Goods Regulation Tariffs Government Policy High Taxes Labor And Capital

Author:Paul Craig Roberts

“We faced a crisis caused by the Federal Reserve, the corporate tax system, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act. But the response of many people in Washington was to blame it on capitalism.”

People Community Taxes Capitalism Crisis Blame Response Corporate Reserves Macs Federal Reserve Mae Tax System

Author:David Boaz

“The current health care takeover proposals feature a crucial payoff to Big Labor - a golden exemption from any tax on union members' generous health care benefits. The friends and patrons of Obama may be making out like bandits. But for everyone else, the Democrats' ideological bankruptcy comes at a nauseatingly steep price.”

“We cannot restore traditional American freedom unless we limit the government's power to tax.”

Government Limits Taxes Libertarian Traditional Tinkering American Freedom

Book:Income Tax: Root of All Evil

Source: Income Tax: Root of All Evil

“Government is not using modern technology so much to modernize and improve services as it is to regulate, punish, collect taxes and keep an eye on us. They'd rather rule than serve.”

Government Eye Technology Modern Taxes Modern Technology

Author:James Cook

“Is there another way? Of course there is. There is a way based on simple moral principles: Everyone keeps his own money. Everyone decides what to do with his own money. No income tax. No IRS. No government grants or assistance to anyone. All charity is voluntary. It's called freedom. It's a peaceful, harmonious way of life, one that Americans once believed in.”

Way Government Courses Simple Moral Principles Taxes Charity Income Peaceful Grants Assistance Another Way Harmonious Income Tax Irs Moral Principles

Author:Jacob G. Hornberger

“Government intervention in the economy - through taxes, regulation and, most importantly, currency inflation - causes distortions and misallocations of capital that must eventually be unwound. The distortions degrade the general standard of living, and the economy goes into a recession (call that an incomplete cleansing). Or it goes into a depression - wherein the entire sickly structure comes unglued.”

Government Causes Economy Taxes Standards Structure Regulation Currency Inflation Intervention Incomplete Distortion Recessions Degrade Standards Of Living Cleansing Government Intervention

Author:Doug Casey

“The best way to help the poor is to slash taxes and allow savings, investment, and creation of jobs to proceed unhampered.”

Way Helping Jobs Poor Creation Taxes Investment Best Way Saving Savings Help The Poor

Author:Murray Rothbard

“A federal bailout would spare California from having to make spending cuts needed to bring its budget into balance. The matter has become urgent since California voters rejected several tax-hiking ballot initiatives. Rather than taking the vote as a signal to dramatically curtail spending, the state turned to the feds. If they get a free pass, the politicians can avoid fixing any of their past mistakes or preparing California for the future.”

“There is no moral distinction between the act of a pickpocket and the progressive income tax.”

Moral Taxes Libertarian Income Distinction Progressive Income Tax

Author:Leonard Read

“The more the state gives to its citizens, the less they have to earn. That is the basic concept of the welfare state - you receive almost everything you need without having to earn any of it. About half of Americans now pay no federal income tax - but they receive all government benefits just as if they had paid for, i.e., earned them.”

Ifs Needs Giving States Government Pay Half Citizens Taxes Benefits Concepts Paid Income Welfare Income Tax Welfare State

Author:Dennis Prager

“Obama does not believe in individual upward mobility. He would penalize it, tax it, regulate it, inveigh against it and disincentivize it. We will be like salmon swimming upstream to mate. We will overcome the currents, the waterfall, the rocks and the predators, and will grapple our way up the stream. Then, at the top of the waterfall will stand Obama the Bear, waiting to scoop us up and have us for dinner. The taxman cometh.”

Way Believe Doe Individual Waiting Rocks Bears Taxes Overcoming Currents Dinner Streams Swimming Mates Predator Mobility Salmon Waterfalls Upward Mobility Swimming Upstream

Author:Dick Morris

“President Obama's recommended reduction in the tax deduction for charitable giving reflects his fundamental belief that only the government can or should help the poor. He wants to keep the impoverished directly dependent on the government - and the Democratic Party - for their daily bread.”

“It's one thing to maintain that upper-income earners should pay higher tax rates because they are better able to shoulder the burden for essential government services. But it's constitutional blasphemy to claim that the tax code should be used as a weapon against the wealthy and that the state should be the tyrannical arbiter of how income is distributed.”

Should States Government Able Used Pay One Thing Higher Taxes Essentials Weapons Claims Rate Burden Shoulders Income Code Wealthy Blasphemy Arbiter Government Service

Author:David Limbaugh

“New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.”

Government President Cost Taxes Raises Majority Credit Income Permanent Budgets Features Voting Stakes Taxpayers Fractions Income Tax Cement Pernicious

Author:Michael J. Boskin

“President Lyndon Johnson's administration was known for his War on Poverty. President Obama's will become notable for his War on Prosperity. We're speaking, of course, of Obama's plans to hike income taxes on the most wealthy 2 or 3 percent of the nation. He's not just raising the top rate to 39.6 percent; he's also disallowing about one-third of top earner's deductions, whether for state and local taxes, charitable contributions or mortgage interest. This is an effective hike in their taxes by an average of about 20 percent.”

“In explaining the Constitution, James Madison, the acknowledged father of the Constitution, wrote in Federalist Paper 45: 'The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peach, negotiation, and foreign commerce.' Has the Constitution been amended to permit Congress to tax, spend and regulate as it pleases or have Americans said, 'To hell with the Constitution'?”

“The most pernicious of his [Obama] proposals will be the massive Make Work Pay refundable tax credit. Dressed up as a tax cut, it will be a national welfare program, guaranteeing a majority of American households an annual check to 'refund' taxes they never paid. And it will eliminate the need for about 20% of American households to pay income taxes, lifting the proportion that need not do so to a majority of the voting population.”

“Whether government finances its added spending by increasing taxes, by borrowing, or by inflating the currency, the added spending will be offset by reduced private spending. Furthermore, private spending is generally more efficient than the government spending that would replace it because people act more carefully when they spend their own money than when they spend other people's money.”

People Government Taxes Spending Finance Efficient Currency Borrowing Government Spending

Author:Richard Wagner

“Ronald Reagan cut taxes to raise the deficit to stop liberals in future years from increasing spending. Obama will raise spending to raise the deficit to stop conservatives in future years from cutting taxes. As he funds every liberal dream - from alternative energy production to infrastructure renovation to more federal revenue sharing - he will force a massive expansion in the size of government for a decade to come.”

“We will shortly become like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, or Sweden - a socialist democracy in which the government dominates the economy, determines private-sector priorities and offers a vastly expanded range of services to many more people at much higher taxes.”

People Government United Economy Democracy Higher Offers Taxes Determine Priorities Kingdoms France Range Germany Socialist Private Sector Sweden United Kingdom

Author:Dick Morris

“House GOP Leader John Boehner on Monday rightly sounded the alarm over billions in stimulus tax dollars that could potentially go to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). But the Republican leadership has only scratched the surface over what amounts to a bottomless slush fund for a bigger coalition of housing entitlement thugs.”

“With a congressional mandate to run the deficit up as high as need be, there is no reason to raise taxes now and risk aggravating the depression. Instead, Obama will follow the opposite of the Reagan strategy. Reagan cut taxes and increased the deficit so that liberals could not increase spending. Obama will raise spending and increase the deficit so that conservatives cannot cut taxes. And, when the economy is restored, he will raise taxes with impunity, since the only people who will have to pay them would be rich Republicans.”

People Needs Reason Would Be Running Pay Economy Rich Cutting Risk Republican Taxes Opposites Increase Raises Strategy Spending No Reason Deficit Mandates Impunity Aggravating

Author:Dick Morris

“In the name of short-term stimulus, he [Obama] will give every American family (who makes less than $200,000) a welfare check of $1,000 euphemistically called a refundable tax credit. And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle class and the poor that the number of Americans who pay no federal income tax will rise from the current one-third of all households to more than half. In the process, he will create a permanent electoral majority that does not pay taxes, but counts on ever-expanding welfare checks from the government.”

“The time will come, and probably during 2009, that the only way the U.S. will be able to fund its deficits is to create money by printing it. The Treasury will have to sell bonds, and, in the absence of foreign buyers, the Fed will have to print the money to buy them. The consequence will be runaway inflation, increasing interest rates, recession, and inevitable tax increases on all Americans.”

Way Able Interest Taxes Consequence Increase Sells Rate Absence Inevitable Fund Feds Print Inflation Deficit Printing Recessions Treasury Interest Rate Buyers Runaway Tax Increases

Author:Doug Casey

“Our government has made a whole lot of promises that, in the long run, it cannot possibly keep without huge tax increases.”

Long Made Whole Government Running Huge Promise Taxes Increase Long Runs Tax Increases

Author:David Walker

“Washington continues to encourage ever more ill-considered lending in a misguided attempt to stave off needed market corrections. The currently proposed combination of a nationwide infrastructure spending orgy plus tax-cut bribes does nothing to remedy that.”

Doe Cutting Needed Taxes Ill Spending Combination Plus Remedy Infrastructure Corrections Tax Cuts Lending Misguided Bribe

Author:Michelle Malkin

“It is not wise for us to permit a few people on the Federal Reserve Board to have life and death power over our economy. My recommendation for reducing some of that power is to repeal legal tender laws and eliminate all taxes on gold, silver and platinum transactions. That way there would be money substitutes and the government money monopoly would be reduced and hence the ability to tax - some people would say steal from - us through inflation.”

“To maintain the harmony of authority and obedience, to chastise the proud, to protect the weak, to reward the deserving, to banish vice and idleness from his dominions, to secure the traveller and merchant, to restrain the depredations of the soldier, to cherish the labors of the husbandman, to encourage industry and learning, and, by an equal and moderate assessment, to increase the revenue, without increasing the taxes, are indeed the duties of a prince . . .”

Source: THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages

“Prosperity of the middling and lower orders depends upon the fortunes and light taxes of the rich.”

Light Order Rich Depends Taxes Fortune Prosperity

Author:Andrew Mellon

“When you're taxing bovine flatulence emissions, there's nothing left to tax.”

Left Taxes Emissions Flatulence Bovine

Book:After America: Get Ready for Armageddon

Source: After America: Get Ready for Armageddon

“If you can look at a crime where everything points to one answer and not see it, you're a dumb-ass. And if you can look at the deficit and not see that the problem is that the rich stopped paying taxes, you're a Republican.”

Ifs Looks Problem Answers Rich Crime Republican Taxes Ass Dumb Deficit Paying Taxes Dumb Ass

Author:Bill Maher

“It is ridiculous to assume you can tax the people that are working and give the money (to people) who are not working and somehow this creates economy activity. You are destroying as much by taking from those who are working and creating.”

People Giving Economy Activity Taxes Creating Assuming Ridiculous Destroying

Author:Yaron Brook

“Suggestion of the Communist Manifesto was 'abolition of all right of inheritance.' Looking backward upon the past history of estate taxes, we have to realize that they more and more have approached the goal set by Marx. Estate taxes of the height they have already attained for the upper brackets are no longer to be qualified as taxes. They are measures of expropriation.”

Past Goal Realizing Taxes Height Communist Looking Back Estates Suggestions Inheritance Qualified Abolition Manifestos Brackets Communist Manifesto Estate Taxes

Author:Ludwig von Mises