Quotes about tax
page 10

“The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system; and 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 1963.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

Business, Summer, Personality

“Finally, our greatest asset in this struggle is the American people--their willingness to pay the price for these programs--to understand and accept a long struggle--to share their resources with other less fortunate people-to meet the tax levels and close the tax loopholes I have requested--to exercise self-restraint instead of pushing up wages or prices, or over-producing certain crops, or spreading military secrets, or urging unessential expenditures or improper monopolies or harmful work stoppages--to serve in the Peace Corps or the Armed Services or the Federal Civil Service or the Congress--to strive for excellence in their schools, in their cities and in their physical fitness and that of their children--to take part in Civil Defense-to pay higher postal rates, and higher payroll taxes and higher teachers' salaries, in order to strengthen our society--to show friendship to students and visitors from other lands who visit us and go back in many cases to be the future leaders, with an image of America--and I want that image, and I know you do, to be affirmative and positive-and, finally, to practice democracy at home, in all States, with all races, to respect each other and to protect the Constitutional rights of all citizens.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

Friendship, Children, People, Secret

“Now, what is meant by the union between Church and State? ... I understand by it that authority is to be not merely political; that Government is to be not merely an affair of force, but is to recognize its responsibility to the Divine Power. Sir, we have discarded the divine right of Kings, and properly discarded it, because the divine right of Kings led to the abuse of supernatural power by individuals; but an intelligent age will never discard the divine right of Government. If Government is not divine, it is nothing. It is a mere affair of the police-office, of the tax-gatherer, of the guard-room.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1868/apr/03/adjourned-debate#column_917 in the House of Commons (3 April 1868)

Age, Intelligence, Understanding

“You get a tax break for a racehorse, why in God's name couldn't we provide an $8,000 tax credit for everybody who has childcare costs? It would put 720 million women back in the workforce. It would increase the GDP, to sound like a wonk here, by about eight-tenths of one percent. It would grow the economy.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

17 September 2019
Biden vows tax credit will put '720 million women' back in workforce
Joseph Wulfsohn
Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-gaffe-put-720-million-women-in-workforce
2010s, 2019

Women, God

“The colonists, it seems, had to "pay taxes to which their consent had never been asked."”

Will Cuppy (1884–1949) American writer

Footnote: Today we pay taxes but our consent has been asked, and we have told the government to go ahead and tax us all they want to. We like it.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), Part V: Merrie England, George III

“Slavery is disheartening; but Nature is not so helpless but it can rid itself of every last wrong. But the spasms of nature are centuries and ages and will tax the faith of short-lived men. Slowly, slowly the Avenger comes, but comes surely. The proverbs of the nations affirm these delays, but affirm the arrival. They say, "God may consent, but not forever."”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

The delay of the Divine Justice — this was the meaning and soul of the Greek Tragedy, — this was the soul of their religion.
"The Fugitive Slave Law", a lecture in New York City (7 March 1854), The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904), p. 238

Men, God, Age, Faith

“I’m in favour of getting rid of all taxes, as much as we can.”

Doug Ford (1964) 26th Premier of Ontario

on the projected Toronto City Council budget surplus https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/quote-of-the-day-doug-ford (29 May 2012) <br class="br">2012

“Simply, libertarians do not advocate the initiation of force, fraud, or theft to achieve social or political goals. If you refused to contribute to my favorite charity, and I took your money at gunpoint anyway, I’d be stealing from you. Similarly, if I vote for taxes to force you to contribute to that charity, I’m asking the government to take your money—at gunpoint, if necessary… Wrong doesn’t turn into right, just because the majority agrees to it. Minorities have no protection if they have to depend upon the majority for it.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 18

Money, Fraud, Dependency

“Those too poor to own their own home pay no property taxes, but their rent reflects the taxes that the landlord must pay. The poor pay higher rents to subsidize inefficiency and waste.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 123

Home

“A government that can't tax ...is no government at all.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

The Tyrant Next Time (November 7, 2019)

“Taxes are at the core of our democracy.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

Perfectly Legal (2005)

Democracy

“Dust to dust by the broken dreams of the humanity,
you ain't got a lot to say, the words are sad,
now, our companion, the pains of the heart
The indifference kills with no shame or concern, killing me,
killing you, watch the end of the blessing, for the blind in the heart war has taken its tax. He has wrapped us in black wings
and one day, the sun stopped, the rain stopped falling,
the flowers didn't look high,
the sky emptied of stars
then a tear dripped from the heart and became our breath
we need a sacred tear,
before the fall.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://allpoetry.com/alexis_karpouzos

Pain, War, Sadness, Dreams

“Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Friendship

“All taxation must be a tax upon industry.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1930/apr/16/ways-and-means#column_2939 in the House of Commons (16 April 1930) <br class="br">Leader of the Liberal Party

“What I enjoy most about being an entrepreneur is making a difference. By building a business we create jobs, pay taxes, and build families and communities.”

Nina Vaca businessperson

CEO Spotlight: Nina Vaca https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2016/june/nina-vaca-pinnacle-group-ceo/, D Magazine (June 2016)

Family, Communication, Business

“A tax increase is still a tax increase, no matter what you call it.”

Eli Bebout (1946) American politician and businessman

As quoted in Casper Star-Tribune https://archive.ph/7h4Fk (March 27, 1994)

“We’re not climate deniers, we’re climate tax deniers.”

Jason Kenney (1968) Canadian politician and 18th Premier of Alberta

[https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/graham-thomson-jason-kenney-quick-to-attack-ndps-climate-plan-slow-to-show-his-own On proposals for a carbon tax] (14 March 2018)
2010s

“Taxes are an evil—a necessary evil, but still an evil, and the fewer of them we have the better.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 424, (1907, 12 February)
Early career years (1898–1929)

Evil

“No barbarities were left unpractised. The tax imposed was strictly exacted. What numbers destroyed themselves with their own hands.”

Nader Shah (1688–1747) ruled as Shah of Iran

Source: Irvine, Later Mughals https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.280772/2015.280772.Later-Mughals_djvu.txt

“If you cannot afford to do justice speedily and well, you may as well shut up the Exchequer and confess that you have no right to raise taxes for the protection of the subject, for justice is the first and primary end of all government.”

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister on two occasions

Source: Quoted in George W. E. Russell in Prime Ministers and Some Others, 1918, p. 23

Justice

“There's a reason why you only do tax policy in a major way every few years — it's really complicated.”

Mark Warner (1954) United States Senator from Virginia

Source: " Senate Democrats target billionaires https://www.axios.com/senate-democrats-billionares-tax-biden-7078079f-7235-4ae6-ab7d-d3bd0476517e.html" (October 23, 2021)

Way

“I'm a Reagan Republican, a proponent of lower taxes, less government, free markets, free trade, defense readiness, and democratic internationalism.”

John McCain book The Restless Wave

2010s, 2018, The Restless Wave (2018)

“I intend to pass one of the biggest middle class tax cuts ever — paid for by making those at the top pay their fair share.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Democrats look to tax people earning more than $400K, no one else for $3.5 trillion bill (September 14, 2021) https://whdh.com/news/democrats-look-to-tax-people-earning-more-than-400k-no-one-else-for-3-5-trillion-bill/ <br class="br">2021, September 2021

“All of those empty storefronts aren’t just shattered dreams, they’re warning lights that are going off and state and local budgets that are being stretched because of the lack of tax revenue.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, March 2021, Remarks by President Biden Before Economic Briefing with Treasury Secretary Yellen

Dreams, Light

“At least 55 corporations in America didn't pay a single penny in federal income tax last year. That’s got to change—and my Build Back Better Agenda will get it done.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

via twitter (October 25, 2021) https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1452666011350614020 <br class="br">2021, October 2021

Change

“I’m going to make those at the top start to pay their share in taxes.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, September 2021

“I give you my word as a Biden: If you make under $400,000 a year, I’ll never raise your taxes one cent.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, September 2021

Quotes about tax page 10

Quotes about tax
page 10