Collected Quotes
the Rich and their Politics
May 24, 2003
www.hamptons real estate.com
Every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.
87
Andrew Jackson (July 10, 1832)
Malefactors of great wealth
86
Theodore Roosevelt (August 20, 1907)
He remembered poor Scott Fitzgerald and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, "The very rich are different from you and me." And how someone had said to Fitzgerald, "Yes, they have more money."
85
Ernest Hemingway (August 1936)
We view this as a moral issue. We think death should not be a taxable event. This will be a campaign issue.
7,8
Senator Phil Gramm, Republican - Texas, on the failure to repeal the estate tax (June 12 &13, 2002)
Do we want to benefit the top one-half of one percent of taxpayers in this country with a $600 billion tax cut?
8
Senator Tom Daschle, Democrat - South Dakota, explaining the failure to repeal the estate tax (June 13, 2002)
Small-business owners, particularly minority owners, suffer anxious moments wondering whether the businesses they hope to hand down to their children will be destroyed by the death tax bill.
88
The Heritage Foundation
The most remarkable example of how politics has shifted in favor of the wealthy is the drive to repeal the estate tax. In 1999, only the top 2 percent of estates paid any tax at all, and half the estate tax was paid by only 3,300 estates, 0.16 percent of the total, with a minimum value of $5 million and an average value of $17 million.
83
Paul Krugman, The New York Times (October 20, 2002)
It is no accident that strongly conservative views, views that militate against taxes on the rich, have spread even as the rich get richer: in addition to directly buying influence, money can be used to shape public perceptions.
83
Paul Krugman, The New York Times (October 20, 2002)
Right out of Nazi Germany.
83
Senator Phil Gramm, Republican - Texas, describing a proposal for a one-time capital gains tax on Americans who renounce their citizenship to avoid U.S. taxes (October 20, 2002)
Twenty years ago, would a prominent senator have likened those who want wealthy people to pay taxes to Nazis? Only someone with a net worth of at least several million dollars is likely to find it worthwhile to become a tax exile.
83
Paul Krugman, The New York Times (October 20, 2002)
©2002 Tom Tomorrow,
www.salon.com
The income tax is paid almost entirely by the well-to-do.
124
R. Glenn Hubbard, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in a speech last month (January 13, 2003). According to the Internal Revenue Service, the top 1 percent of taxpayers pay 37 percent of all federal income taxes.
A complete accounting shows that the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers earned about 18 percent of all income in 2001 and paid about 25 percent of all federal taxes. It's a little progressive, but we're not talking about communism here.
124
Robert S. McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, after including Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, and comparing income to total federal tax (January 13, 2003).
It's an income tax, not a head tax. And it's all about disposable income, isn't it?
Families earning less than $19,000 a year pay 12.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes, largely because of the sales tax, while the wealthiest 1 percent, those making over $571,000 a year, pay 8.2 percent of their income.
125
Report on the New Jersey tax system by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (January 10, 2003)
Total U.S. Tax Burden
144
| Income Group | Bottom 20% | Second 20% | Middle 20% | Fourth 20% |
Top 20% |
Average Income | $7,946 | $20,319 | $35,536 | $56,891 | $116,666 | Total Taxes a | $1,449 | $2,847 | $5,622 | $9,835 | $21,623 | % of Income | 18% | 14% | 16% | 17% | 19% |
a federal and state taxes on income, property, utilities, tobacco, alcohol, gasoline and sales, and employee Social Security contribution
The problem is that the rich are screwing up our democracy. Less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. population gave 83 percent of all itemized campaign contributions for the 2002 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
127
Molly Ivins (January 13, 2003)
The tax relief I propose will give 23 million small-business owners an average tax cut of $2,042 this year.
128
George W. Bush radio address (January 18, 2003)
Most small businesses will get a tax break of less than $500; about 5 million of those 23 million small businesses will get no break at all. The average is more than $2,000 only because a small number of very wealthy businessmen will get huge tax cuts.
128
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, citing the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (January 21, 2003)
A liberal and a conservative were sitting in a bar. Then Bill Gates walked in. "Hey, we're rich!" shouted the conservative. "The average person in this bar is now worth more than a billion!" "That's silly," replied the liberal. "Bill Gates raises the average, but that doesn't make you or me any richer." "Hah!" said the conservative, "I see you're still practicing the discredited politics of class warfare."
128 Paul Krugman, The New York Times (January 21, 2003)
©2003 Ted Rall,
www.ucomics.com
Mr. Bush's mendacity on economic matters was obvious even during the 2000 election. But lately it has reached almost pathological levels. Last week Mr. Bush - who has been having a hard time getting reputable economists to endorse his economic plan - claimed an endorsement from the latest Blue Chip survey of business economists. "I don't know what he was citing," declared the puzzled author of that report, which said no such thing.
145
Paul Krugman, The New York Times (February 25, 2003)
| Earned Income Tax Credit | $10 Billion | Corporations | $46 Billion | Offshore Accounts | $70 Billion | Individual Taxpayers | $132 Billion |
164 IRS estimates of taxes lost to fraud (April 27, 2003). Under the Bush administration, the IRS is increasing enforcement on Earned Income Tax Credit claims, while reducing enforcement in all the other areas. To be eligible for the Earned Income credit, the total household income must be less than $35,000.
Aside from its mean-spiritedness, this suggestion is simply false: our deficits are too large, and our current spending on the poor too small, for even the most Scrooge-like of governments to offer additional tax cuts for the rich without raising taxes or cutting benefits for the middle class.
The list of cuts - in child nutrition, medical care for children, child-care assistance and support for foster care and adoption (leave no child behind!) - was clearly designed to suggest that the budget can be balanced on the backs of the poor, without any significant cuts in programs that benefit the middle class.
171
Paul Krugman, The New York Times (April 15, 2003)
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