“In the last few decades entire new categories of waste have come to plague and menace the American scene. Pollution is growing at a rapid rate. Pollution destroys beauty and menaces health. It cuts down on efficiency, reduces property values and raises taxes. Almost all these wastes and pollutions are the result of activities carried on for the benefit of man. A prime national goal must be an environment that is pleasing to the senses and healthy to live in. Our Government is already doing much in this field. We have made significant progress. But more must be done.” MenMadeDoneGovernmentLastsValuesGoalResultsBeautyEnvironmentCuttingGrowingProgressFieldsHealthySceneActivityTaxesWasteBenefitsRaisesPropertyRateDecadesSensesSignificantPrimeCategoriesPollutionEfficiencyPlagueRapidsMenacePollution Control Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“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
“Ron Paul would have demanded that entire departments be shuttered – not that the bums merely bring into balance what was stolen (taxes) with what is squandered (spending). Besides, what a balanced-budget requirement implies is that government has the constitutional right to spend as much as it takes in – that government is permitted to waste however much revenue it can extract from wealth producers.” GovernmentWealthBalanceTaxesWasteSpendingProducersBudgetsBalancedRequirementsStolenRevenueBalanced Budget Author:Ilana Mercer
“Teach kids not to fight. Can they change taxes? I'd get rid of all the congestion charges, because they've not stopped traffic. They're a waste of time, not that I'm getting all political.” KidsPoliticalFightingTeachTaxesWasteWasting TimeTrafficCongestion Author:Peter Andre
“Assuming that a tax increase is necessary, it is clearly preferable to impose the additional cost on land by increasing the land tax, rather than to increase the wage tax - the two alternatives open to the City (of Pittsburgh). It is the use and occupancy of property that creates the need for the municipal services that appear as the largest item in the budget - fire and police protection, waste removal, and public works. The average increase in tax bills of city residents will be about twice as great with wage tax increase than with a land tax increase.” NeedsTwoUseCitiesFireLandCostTaxesWasteIncreasePoliceBillsAssumingPropertyAverageProtectionAlternativesBudgetsItemsResidentsRemovalPittsburghTax IncreasesPolice Protection Author:Herbert Simon
“I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well.” WellsStatesJobsIndividualCan DoEffortMagicTaxesWasteDollarsFavorsScalesAdministrationBureaucracyCompulsionIncompetenceLarge ScaleTax DollarsIndividual Effort Author:John F. Kennedy
“Anyone who's ever filed a tax return or visited the Department of Motor Vehicles understands that government does two things well: spend our money and waste our time.” WellsDoeTwoGovernmentReturnTaxesWasteOur TimeTwo ThingsDepartmentVehicleMotorTax ReturnsMotor Vehicles Author:Edwin Feulner
“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
“No one could argue with a straight face that the couples getting married today are much happier just because their wedding celebrations cost three times as much as those in 1980. Bigger mansions and costlier parties are wasteful in the same sense that larger antlers on all bull elk are wasteful. The good news is that simple changes in the tax system can eliminate much of this waste without having to deny people the right to decide for themselves how best to spend their money.” PeopleTodayFacesThreeSimplePartyCoupleCostTaxesWasteMarriedNewsBiggerDenyArguingCelebrationGood NewsThree TimesBullsGetting MarriedMansionsTax SystemStraight FaceElkAntlers Author:Robert H. Frank
“Every nation-state tends towards the imperial - that is the point. Through banks, armies, secret police, propaganda, courts and jails, treaties, taxes, laws and orders, myths of civil obedience, assumptions of civic virtue at the top. Still it should be said of the political left, we expect something better. And correctly. We put more trust in those who show a measure of compassion, who denounce the hideous social arrangements that make war inevitable and human desire omnipresent; which fosters corporate selfishness, panders to appetites and disorder, waste the earth.” ShouldHumansSaidStillsWarStatesShowsEarthLawPoliticalDesireOrderLeftNationsSocialSecretCompassionVirtueTaxesWasteArmyPoliceCourtMythInevitableSelfishnessObedienceCorporatePropagandaAssumptionJailDisorderAppetiteArrangementsSomething BetterTreatiesCivicsHideousLaw And OrderSecret PoliceCivic Virtue Author:Daniel Berrigan
“We can't afford to waste people. We can't afford to have people think the game is over before it's begun. We've got to be saying to the Canadian people: you can't tax cut your way to a productive 21st-century economy. You can talk that talk, but it's not going to give you a productive 21st-century economy, because it will scythe apart the public goods that make prosperity possible. That's what we've got to say, and so we shall.” PeopleThinkingWayGivingGamesEconomyCuttingCenturyTaxesWasteProsperityProductiveGoods21st CenturyTax CutsScythes Author:Michael Ignatieff
“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