Tax break

“ When it comes to the deficit, we’ve already agreed to more than two-trillion dollars in cuts and savings. But we need to do more, and that means making choices. Right now, we’re poised to spend nearly a trillion dollars more on what was supposed to be a temporary tax break for the wealthiest two-percent of Americans. ”

“ Instead of giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, we want to give tax breaks to small business owners who are creating jobs right here in America. Already, we’ve given small businesses eight new tax cuts, and have expanded lending to more than 60,000 small business owners. ”

“ One of the taxes that needs to be addressed – because we’re losing manufacturing jobs in this country. We today reward industries that leave America by giving them tax breaks. I would like to see us reward companies that stay in our inner cities, go to places where jobs ought to be created. That to be a part of our tax policy as well. ”

“ In this agreement the President negotiated with Republicans, there is a substantial sum of money going into various types of business tax breaks. The theory, which has certainly some validity, is that these business tax breaks will create jobs. The problem is that right now, businesses, the large corporations at least, are sitting on a huge bundle of money already that they are not spending. The reason they are not investing that money is they perceive that working families don't have the money to buy their products and services. ”

“ We said a family earning up to $250,000 should get an extension of these tax breaks. That is 98 percent of the American people, and that is not good enough for our Republican friends. They are fighting tooth and nail to make sure the top 2 percent—the millionaires and billionaires, the CEOs who earn tens of millions a year—they are fighting—it is as if they are at war. They are so engaged to make sure these fabulously wealthy people receive at least $1 million, in some cases. For people who are making $1 million a year, they are going to receive, on average, $100,000 a year in tax breaks. ”

“ Now, we should have tax cuts this year, but they should be the right ones, targeted to working families to help our economy grow, not tax breaks that will help only a few while putting our prosperity at risk. ”

“ At a time, as I mentioned earlier, where the top 1 percent has seen a huge increase in the percentage of income they earn in this country—going from 8 percent in the 1970s to 23.5 percent now—and where the top 1 percent now earns more income than the bottom 50 percent, it is totally absurd to be giving tax breaks to people who do not need them, and it is not good economics, as well. ”

“ So if you are a wealthy person and you earn money from dividends—I believe the overwhelming majority of those capital gains accrue to the top 1 percent—you are going to be paying a tax on that income of 15 percent, which is less than you pay if you are a fireman, a police officer, a teacher, or a nurse. So what we are doing there is extending not only the personal income tax breaks for the very rich but a host of other taxes as well. ”

“ The old ways in deciding that all you got to do is cut tax breaks for the top tier and everything is going to work out -- that is simply -- does not work. It's failed. It's a failed policy. And now is not the time -- that's not to say, by the way, tax breaks don't matter. ”

“ I would say to my colleagues in the Senate, we do not have to worry about these guys. They are doing just fine. They do not need an extension of tax breaks. The wealthiest 400 Americans now earn, on average, $345 million a year, and they pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent. How is that? All right. The top 400 wealthiest people in this country earn $345 million a year, and they pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent. They do not need an extension of tax breaks. ”

“ I remind the listeners and my colleagues that these tax breaks have been in existence since 2001. They were in existence throughout almost all of President Bush's tenure. The end result was that we lost 600,000 private sector jobs—lost 600,000 private sector jobs, the worst job performance record maybe in the history of this country. Trickle-down economics does not work. ”

“ They will provide more relief to the top one percent of taxpayers than to millions of working people who make up the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers. These tax breaks spend hundreds of billions of dollars and give one percent of Americans $17,000 a piece, while most Americans get less than $200 each. And tax cuts this large will stop us from paying down the debt, thereby raising interest rates, which will more than take away the tax cuts most Americans get in higher mortgage and interest payments. ”

“ That’s why, in the next few weeks, I will put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to do the right thing by bringing jobs home and investing in America – and eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas. ”

“ And it pays for this with smart spending cuts and by fixing a tax code that’s riddled with special-interest loopholes for folks who don’t need them, allowing us to offer tax breaks to students and families who do need them. ”

“ If the Government in such case could consider these gradual accretions to be "Income" and could tax them and the Capital on which they accrue under the pretense that they constituted "Income," must not an absolutely final exhaustion, not merely of the resources of the public, but of the Government itself, become inevitable? Taxation then might not merely be the power to destroy, but be destruction itself. ”

“ This brought me to the conclusion that, “when a reduction of taxation is about to take place, it is exceedingly important that great care and judgment should be exercised in the selection of the tax to be reduced, in order that the maximum of relief may be afforded to the public with the minimum of injury to the revenue.” ”

“ If renouncing a surplus revenue would enable us to dispense with a tax, we ought to consider the very worst of all our taxes as precisely the one which we are keeping up for the sake of ultimately abolishing taxes not so bad as itself. In a country advancing in wealth, whose increasing revenue gives it the power of ridding itself from time to time of the most inconvenient portions of its taxation, I conceive that the increase of revenue should rather be disposed of by taking off taxes, than by liquidating debt, as long as any very objectionable imposts remain. ”

“ About 10 days ago we all kept our rendezvous with the Internal Revenue Service and anted up our income tax. If it'll help ease the pain, let me remind you that in about 2 months, on July 1st, you'll start paying 10 percent less income tax on what you earn.
But that won't mean anything to a growing group of citizens who've already given themselves a tax cut. It's estimated that about $95 billion in income tax is not being paid. That's enough to balance the budget. ”

“ That tax is to be returned by, and collected from, the corporation as his agent and instrument.
A tax is understood to be a charge, a pecuniary burden, for the support of government. Of all burdens imposed upon mankind that of grinding taxation is the most cruel. It is not taxation that government should take from one the profits and gains of another. That is taxation which compels one to pay for the support of the government from his own gains and of his own property. ”

“ The effect of such a course on industry and unemployment is disastrous. If initiative and enterprise, which, in this country, form the life-blood of industry, are to escape extinction, then taxation on industry must speedily be reduced. The directions in which business men are pressing for alleviation from the insupportable oppression of taxation are in the reduction of the rate of income-tax, exemption from super-tax of reserves invested in the business, and abolition of the corporation profits tax. ”

“ It is to be feared, therefore, that the fairness which belongs to the principle of an income-tax can not be made to attach to it in practice. This consideration would lead us to concur in the opinion which, until of late, has usually prevailed—that direct taxes on income should be reserved as an extraordinary resource for great national emergencies, in which the necessity of a large additional revenue overrules all objections. ”

“ What will that do to Federal revenues, that dramatic increase in taxes? What will that do to the economy? We are not sure, but we suspect it will slow the economy dramatically. Some of these great gains that we have seen in the economy, the 22 months of expansion, the 7.4 million new jobs, may be significantly impacted by that type of a tax increase. ”

“ How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be?
Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government—divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on.
In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. ”

“ The entire abolition of a tax is not properly to be called a financial measure, that epithet belonging rather to those which aim at an augmentation of revenue by an increase in the number of contributors to a tax, while lessening the amount paid by each. But the abandonment of the tax in question should rather be regarded as a sacrifice of revenue for the instruction of the people in political knowledge; a price paid to enable and induce the poorer classes to take a well-instructed interest in the affairs of the state and the general condition of the country. ”

“ If we impose a tax upon manufactures or imported goods, the manufacturer or importer will charge it in a higher price to the jobber, the jobber to the retailer, and the retailer to the consumer. Now, the consumer, on whom the tax thus ultimately falls, must not only pay the amount of the tax, but also a profit on this amount to every one who has thus advanced it—for profit on the capital he has advanced in paying taxes is as much required by each dealer as profit on the capital he has advanced in paying for goods. ”

“ There are cogent reasons, however, why the national indebtedness should not be thus rapidly extinguished. Chief among them is the fact that only by excessive taxation is such rapidity attainable.
In a communication to the Congress at its last session I recommended that all excise taxes be abolished except those relating to distilled spirits and that substantial reductions be also made in the revenues from customs. A statute has since been enacted by which the annual tax and tariff receipts of the Government have been cut down to the extent of at least fifty or sixty millions of dollars. ”

“ To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbours. It is not the fortunes which are earned, but those which are unearned, that it is for the public good to place under limitation. A just and wise legislation would abstain from holding out motives for dissipating rather than saving the earnings of honest exertion. ”

“ The same causes which have concentrated the stock in these cities, will, in all probability, continue to operate, and the greater part of future loans will be effected there. Should, therefore, even so small a portion of the United States as these cities, unite in taxing stock to any considerable amount, the government may be defeated, and will certainly be impeded in its fiscal operations, to the extent of any tax imposed. ”

“ But this alone will not avail, unless employment is also found at home for the great proportion of those who may not be inclined to emigrate. Whatever measure, therefore, tends to give employment to the poor, is entitled to the support of every well-wisher to the state.
Now we hear much of the evils of taxation; we hear great complaints of the injustice of various taxes; but there is one tax, which is more unjust, more oppressive, and more objectionable than all the others put together, and that is—the tax on labour! ”

“ All the fiscal officers of the United States, from the Secretary of the Treasury down to the lowest tide-waiter, are liable to be changed every four years, and as a matter of fact are usually to a very large extent so changed, to the great detriment of the service and ultimate expense of the people, to say nothing of the moral losses and crevasses involved. (2) The tax-money should be kept out of the pockets of the people as short a time as possible, disbursement following quick upon collection. ”

“ The income-tax was originally proposed to supply the loss of revenue sustained in consequence of an over-reduction of the indirect taxes; and as a matter of equity it follows, that the supplies should be drawn, though in a different form, from the same portion of the community.
Is this the case? Can any man venture to say that the income-tax, as we have known it for the last five years, has been borne with equal [388] fairness by all classes of the community? Is it not, on the contrary, the most unequal, the most unjust, and the most oppressive tax that ever yet was levied? ”

“ After every change in taxation, competition among bargainers goes on and a new equilibrium of prices results. The citizen who pays a tax into the public treasury is not always the one whose income is reduced in the long run. In most cases the final and regular burden of the tax is distributed over a number of incomes. The passing on of the burden is called the shifting of the tax ”