“The growing inequality of wealth and income distribution is both a moral and economic problem. If the wealthy are unwilling to pay more taxes, then this is going to lead to spending cuts. And if you put off the table things like national defense, then you're going to end up cutting more and more out of programs that aid the poor. So, I think there are consequences to this idea that tolerance for inequality requires us to - to just do nothing to make the wealthy contribute a higher share of resources to fund the government.” IfsThinkingIdeasEndsProblemGovernmentWealthPoorPayMoralCuttingGrowingShareEconomicHigherTaxesConsequenceResourcesProgramTablesSpendingDefenseAidsToleranceIncomeInequalityFundWealthyDistributionUnwillingNational DefenseEconomic ProblemsSpending CutsIncome Distribution Author:Bruce Bartlett
“My brother is a tax guy, and the way I look at it, it's like he's spending his life saving money for rich people. So I think making strangers laugh, at least having a creative component to your profession, is more manageable for me. I can live with that a lot easier.” PeopleThinkingWayLooksI CanGuyLaughingCreativeRichBrotherEasierTaxesStrangerSpendingProfessionSavingMy BrotherComponentsRich PeopleSaving MoneyManageableLife Saving Author:Gary Gulman
“I served on the budget committee in the Senate, and I remember as vividly as if it were yesterday when we had a hearing in which Alan Greenspan came and justified increasing spending and cutting taxes, saying that we didn't really need to pay down the debt - outrageous in my view.” IfsNeedsRememberViewsPayCuttingTaxesHearingDebtSpendingYesterdayBudgetsSenateCommitteesJustifiedOutrageous Author:Hillary Clinton
“It is perhaps my greatest hope, Mr. President, that some day we'll consider tax and spending measures with no one else in mind but future generations of American taxpayers. We're tying a millstone of debt around their necks, and it is a grave mistake.” MindPresidentMistakeGenerationsTaxesDebtSpendingGravesNecksFuture GenerationTaxpayers Author:John McCain
“I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of tax cuts, irrespective of their size, or to which segment of the population they are targeted. Nor can I support any spending increases that are not related to improving our nation's defense from the obvious and serious threats facing us today.” TodayNationsSupportCuttingSeriousTaxesConscienceVoteIncreaseThreatSizePopulationObviousSpendingDefenseFavorsRelatedImprovingTax Cuts Author:John McCain
“In the Washington soft money game, big business and big labor are accomplices working together to protect the mushy middle of big government, with plenty of special interest plums: Big unions get big spending and big business gets corporate welfare and special tax breaks - all at the expense of average Americans.” BigsGovernmentTogetherGamesInterestBreakMiddleSpecialProtectTaxesLaborUnionsAverageSpendingPlentyCorporateWelfareWorking TogetherExpensesSpecial InterestsBig BusinessBig GovernmentPlumsAccomplicesTax Breaks Author:John McCain
“The story of Detroit's bankruptcy was simple enough: Allow capitalism to grow the city, campaign against income inequality, tax the job creators until they flee, increase government spending in order to boost employment, promise generous pension plans to keep people voting for failure. Rinse, wash and repeat.” PeopleEnoughStoriesGovernmentJobsOrderGrowsSimpleCitiesPlansPromiseTaxesCapitalismIncreaseCreatorSpendingCampaignsIncomeEmploymentInequalityGenerousRepeatsVotingDetroitBankruptcyBoostPensionGovernment SpendingIncome InequalityJob CreatorsPension Plans Author:Ben Shapiro
“In every major war we have fought in the 19th and 20th centuries. Americans have been asked to pay higher taxes - and nonessential programs have been cut - to support the military effort. Yet during this Iraq war, taxes have been lowered and domestic spending has climbed. In contrast to World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, for most Americans this conflict has entailed no economic sacrifice. The only people really sacrificing for this war are the troops and their families.” PeopleWorldHas BeensWarEffortPaySupportCuttingSacrificeEconomicCenturyMilitaryHigherConflictTaxesMajorsProgramIraqSpendingWar Of The WorldsVietnamWorld War IiContrastWorld War ITroops20th CenturyKoreanIraq WarKorean War Author:Robert Hormats
“Another agency - the IRS - did not do as well under Republicans who control Congress. The IRS is largely flatlined in their spending, but they did get about 300 million more funding. But I can only be used to help people pay their taxes and answer questions. It can't be used for any other purpose.” PeopleWellsI CanHelpingUsedPurposeAnswersPayMillionsRepublicanTaxesCongressSpendingAgencyFundingIrs Author:Susan Davis
“Those policies - more taxes, more regulation, more debt, more spending, more government - will make American worse. It just will, in my view.” GovernmentViewsPolicyTaxesDebtSpendingRegulation Author:Jeff Sessions
“You have to abolish pension plans. You have to abolish social spending. You have to raise taxes. You have to have at least fifty percent of the European population emigrate, either to Russia or China. You would have to have mass starvation. Very simple. That's the price that the Eurozone thinks is well worth paying.” ThinkingWellsSocialSimplePlansTaxesMassPercentRaisesPopulationChinaSpendingRussiaFiftyStarvationAbolishPensionEurozonePension Plans Author:Michael Hudson
“Puerto Rico is a government that is spending money that it doesn't have. What's coming in and what's going out don't match. That is, what they are receiving in taxes is not sufficient to cover the spending that they are taking on. And any entity that does that, whether a family, a business, a government, is going to go broke and bankrupt. They are asking to be given the right to declare bankruptcy, which I think should be an option, as a last resort, if there is no other resource.” IfsThinkingShouldDoeGovernmentLastsGivenTaxesResourcesAskingSpendingBrokeSufficientReceivingEntityGoing OutResortsBankruptcyPuerto RicoSpending MoneyRico Author:Marco Rubio
“The largest tax reduction in American history, one page tax form, reducing government spending. Those are all the keys to economic progress.” GovernmentFormProgressEconomicKeysTaxesPagesSpendingAmerican HistoryReducingReductionGovernment SpendingEconomic Progress Author:Rudy Giuliani
“The reality is the most important thing that can be done are these permanent changes like to the tax code, reduction of government spending. These are the things that pop up in economy and move it in the right direction, start to make it an economy that is moving because of the money in the private economy. When you think about it, when the Fed is lowering an interest rate, what it's doing is it's creating more liquidity. It's putting more money into the economy. The same thing happens when you reduce the tax except if happens from physical policy.” IfsThinkingImportantDoneRealityGovernmentHappensMovingInterestEconomyPolicyTaxesCreatingImportant ThingsRatePopsSpendingThings HappenCodePermanentFedsMore MoneyReductionRight DirectionInterest RateGovernment SpendingLiquidityPermanent Change Author:Rudy Giuliani
“You want to do tax reductions, you want to do permanent tax reduction, reductions in spending. You've got to go out and explain it to the people, get them on your side and have them become the levers that you need in congressional relations.” PeopleWantNeedsSidesTaxesRelationSpendingPermanentReductionYour SideLevers Author:Rudy Giuliani
“You can get a coalition of senators from particular states in America, for example, who want to construct highways or dams or ports which may well be very inefficient. The taxes would be paid by the people over the whole country, but the benefits would go to the few people in those particular locations. This type of spending is a rather gross waste of resources that worsened over the years as the government has been allowed to do more particularized things.” PeopleWantYearsWellsMayHas BeensCountryStatesWholeGovernmentWould BeAmericaExampleParticularTypeTaxesWasteBenefitsResourcesPaidSpendingSenatorsLocationConstructsGrossHighwaysPortCoalitionsDams Author:James M. Buchanan
“If you are going to spend for one group, you have to spend the same for every group, just like if you tax one group you have to tax everybody. You have to go back to having more general laws, more general taxes and more general spending programs.” IfsLawGroupsTaxesProgramSpending Author:James M. Buchanan
“I'm spending a year dead for tax reasons.” YearsReasonMoneyTaxesSpendingFunny LifeFunny MoneyTax DayTaxes Funny Author:Douglas Adams
“If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation.” IfsShouldPoliticsBusinessTaxesDebtSpendingRepresentationTaxationIncome TaxTaxation Without Representation Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Will some reporter, or some Republican on the Sunday shows, please ask why tax cuts raid the non-existent Social Security Trust Fund but all the Democrats' new spending doesn't? Will someone please ask that?” ShowsAsksSocialCuttingSecurityTrustPleaseRepublicanTaxesDemocratSpendingSundayFundReportersSocial SecurityTax CutsTrust Funds Author:Rush Limbaugh
“There are three legs of the stool; spending, entitlements and making the tax code fair and equitable. That's the three legs of the stool. If we do all of those in a responsible, bipartisan way, I think the American people would all be very, very happy.” PeopleIfsThinkingWayThreeTaxesFairsResponsibleLegsSpendingCodeVery HappyEntitlementBipartisanStoolsEquitableThree Legs Author:Claire McCaskill
“If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.” IfsPoliticalFoundPoliticsPoliticianPromiseTaxesDinnerDebtSpendingMissionaryConstituentsCannibal Author:H. L. Mencken
“Democrats single out glaring examples of tax preferences or spending priorities that favor the wealthy and Republicans cry 'class warfare!'” ClassCryExampleRepublicanTaxesDemocratSpendingFavorsPrioritiesWealthyWarfarePreferenceClass Warfare Author:Dee Dee Myers
“During the campaign for re-election, Barack Obama at least made vague references to a willingness to accept $3 trillion of reduced spending in exchange for a $1 trillion dollar tax increase.” MadeAcceptingTaxesIncreaseElectionDollarsSpendingCampaignsBarackWillingnessVagueTax Increases Author:Bob Beauprez
“The answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes and more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom for the individual American to earn a rightful place in his own community - and for States and localities to address their own needs in their own ways, in the light of their own priorities.” WayNeedsStatesProblemLightFacesIndividualCommunityAnswersResultsGreaterHigherTaxesWasteSpendingPrioritiesAddressesLocality Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1973 Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1973
“This is the disease in America. It's not just spending. It's not just taxes. It's not just corruption. It is progressivism. And it is in both Parties. It is in the Republicans and the Democrats.” PartyRepublicanTaxesDemocratCorruptionSpendingProgressivism Author:Glenn Beck
“No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy - well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I'm President, I never will.” WellsLongPresidentPartyBreakDemocracyTaxesCongressRefuseMathSpendingCompromiseWealthyAlliesGovernorsDeficitMonopolyRomneyTax BreaksGovernor Romney Author:Barack Obama
“To reduce deficit spending and our enormous debt, you reign in spending. You cut the budget. You don't take more from the private sector and grow government with it. And that's exactly what Obama has in mind with this expiration of Bush tax cuts proposal of his.” MindGovernmentGrowsCuttingTaxesDebtSpendingEnormousBudgetsReignDeficitProposalPrivate SectorTax CutsBudget DeficitDeficit Spending Author:Sarah Palin
“Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.” ShouldMeanSimpleGenerationsPoliticianPureTaxesIncreaseSpendingExposedDeficitFuture GenerationHikerTax IncreasesDeficit Spending Author:Ron Paul
“For more than forty years, the United States Congress has shamelessly used payroll taxes intended for Social Security to fund big government spending.” YearsStatesBigsGovernmentUsedSocialUnitedUnited StatesSecurityTaxesCongressSpendingFortyFundPregnancySocial SecurityBig GovernmentGovernment SpendingPayrollPayroll Tax Author:Mike Pence
“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.” PeopleLittlesProblemGovernmentToo MuchTaxesConservativeDebtSpending Author:Ronald Reagan
“The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.” GovernmentWorkMilitaryTaxesConservativeDebtSpendingFederal GovernmentTaxationExaminationTaxpayersIncome TaxTax DayTaxes FunnyCivil ServiceFederal Taxes Author:Ronald Reagan