Quotes About Tax Reform

#1. What I heard was that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory. He'll have Social Security reform passed, that he'll have tax reform passed, that he'll have conservative judges on the courts.

Pat Robertson

#2. I'm not feeling undertaxed. Tax reform is an important issue. You have to have an inherent sense of fairness.

Stephen A. Schwarzman

#3. Tax reform has been used as a crutch, as a smokescreen and as candy coating for the hard choices that have to be made.

Sir Arthur Sullivan

#4. Why is it that half of the households in America pay zero income tax? We need some real tax reform.

John Cornyn

#5. I'm not for a temporary war tax. We're putting actual dollars in one way or the other, and so if we're gonna look at taxes, we ought to look at a comprehensive tax reform policy.

Stephen Pagliuca

#6. If you have to change the law to get more money, that's a tax increase, and Americans for Tax Reform supports all efforts of tax reform, getting rid of deductions or credits, or something that's misclassified, as long as you at the same time reduce rates so that it's not a hidden tax.

Grover Norquist

#7. I would go to them and I would explain this is the price of going forward. We're going to move ahead in all these other areas. We're moving ahead in tax reform and GST, we are moving ahead on trade, but this will not be done at the cost of the environment.

Brian Mulroney

#8. To introduce a whole new tax regime, that would be modern tax reform. But that's too big a task.

Chuck Schumer

#9. A tax loophole is something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.

Russell B. Long

#10. I'm for tax reform, not tax increases.

Grover Norquist

#11. Tax reform is taking the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and putting taxes on things that haven't been taxed before.

Art Buchwald

#12. Rather than passing a thousand pages of tax reform legislation and restarting the tax code manipulation process, we should change the paradigm. It is time to eliminate the IRS and repeal the 16th Amendment.

Jim Bridenstine

#13. Actually, I'm a strong supporter of comprehensive tax reform.

John S. Watson

#14. Basically the tax reform ideas are to clean up the tax system and to eliminate the loopholes that only very few make use of, to eliminate the possibility of people making millions of dollars every year and not paying any tax at all through oil depletion allowances and things like that.

Warren Beatty

#15. Tax reform and expanded trade are going to be so important to the economy of Illinois, particularly the 11th Congressional District, which is a major manufacturing and a major agricultural district.

Jerry Weller

#16. I think we can have some tax reform, but that doesn't mean tax increases. We ought to make the, the rates flatter. We ought to get rid of a bunch of those loopholes.

John Kasich

#17. The important thing about tax reform is you make the tax code less complicated, easier for people to understand.

Grover Norquist

#18. I'm in favor of doing tax reform, but I think tax reform ought to be revenue neutral as it was back during the [Ronald] Reagan years. We've resolved this issue.

Mitch McConnell

#19. It's not coincidence that the U.S. is in last place in the world in terms of corporate tax rate. It's because our system is set up to block tax reform.

David Malpass

#20. The American economy is driven by small business. And there's nothing basically to create incentives for small businesses. We've done no tax reform. They're the highest-taxed group in the country. And corporations can go anywhere they want and do whatever they want. Small businesses have to stay ...

Ed Rollins

#21. Obama's Democrats have become the part of no. Real cuts to federal budget? No. Entitlement reform? No. Tax reform? No. Breaking the corrupt and fiscally unsustainable symbiosis between public-sector unions and state governments? Hell no.

Charles Krauthammer

#22. We're going to do tax reform to let people keep more of what they earn, grow an economy, and be able to save for your children's future and buy a new house.

Kevin McCarthy

#23. We are committed to doing trade, tax reform, infrastructure. All we need is someone that wants to work with us.

Kevin McCarthy

#24. We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.

Ronald Reagan

#25. We must move from revenue-neutral to revenue-reducing tax reform, because the federal government spends far too much money.

Carly Fiorina

#26. Americans for Tax Reform is a national taxpayer organization dedicated to opposing any and all tax increases. We work at the national, state and local level for lower taxes, less government spending and limited government.

Grover Norquist

#27. Input of public judgement for any major tax reform.

Newt Gingrich

#28. When Congress talks of tax reform, grab your wallet and run for cover.

Steve Symms

#29. The key to revenue growth is tax reform that closes loopholes and that is pro-growth. Then with a growing economy, that's where your revenue growth comes in, not from higher taxes.

John Hoeven

#30. Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly "reforming" their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact they're always busy "reforming" is an implicit admission that they didn't get it right the first 50 times.

Lawrence W. Reed

#31. We all want a simpler code, but tax reform is about much more. It is about ensuring that everyone pays their fair share. The tax code is also used to promote behavior that we as a nation support, such as home ownership or charitable contributions.

Charles B. Rangel

#32. Tax reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Max Baucus

#33. What we need is fundamental tax reform.

Rob Portman

#34. I think in 2012 one of the primary issues that will get a lot of discussion will be comprehensive tax reform.

Tom Reed

#35. Fundamental [tax] reform almost always runs the risk of making things worse.

Dan Rostenkowski

#36. A balanced program for tax reform based upon the common sense idea of lowering taxes out of surplus revenues.

Andrew Mellon

#37. [T]ax cuts are not just something that all taxpayers deserve, but also the best way to curb government spending. It is the best kind of tax reform. If the money never reaches the table, Congress can't gobble it up.

Zell Miller

#38. We need to stop kicking the can down the road and rethink our entire tax system toward long-term, comprehensive tax reform.

Brad Schneider

#39. Tax reform means, 'Don't tax you, don't tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.'

Russell B. Long

#40. When I worked in the White House for President Carter, we tried to do comprehensive tax reform and we made some progress, and other presidents have as well.

David Rubenstein

#41. Romney said that his tax reform proposal is 'very similar to the Simpson-Bowles plan.' How I wish it were.

Erskine Bowles

#42. Any substantial tax reform would involve substantial redistributions of tax burdens and substantial changes in asset values, and you need some 'lubrication' (i.e., transition rules).

Robert Reischauer

#43. We pursued the wrong policies. George Bush is not on the ballot. Bill Clinton is not on the ballot. Mitt Romney is on the ballot, and Barack Obama is on the ballot. And Mitt Romney is proposing tax reform, regulatory reform, a wise budget strategy and trade. The president has proposed tax increases.

Glenn Hubbard

#44. The billionaires pay an effective tax rate lower than nurses or truck drivers. That makes no sense at all. There has to be real tax reform, and the wealthiest and large corporations will pay.

Bernie Sanders

#45. Tax (reform) is ultimately a decision about values.

Bill Bradley

#46. I wish that the Democrats would put some effort into Social Security reform, illegal immigration's reform, tax reform, or some of the other real issues that are out there.

Jack Kingston

#47. The question is: What can we, as citizens, do to reform our tax system? As you know, under our three-branch system of government, the tax laws are created by: Satan. But he works through the Congress, so that's where we must focus our efforts.

Dave Barry

#48. I ... now see a rare opportunity to push across the goal line much of the unfinished business of America: investing in our infrastructure and workers, universal healthcare, comprehensive immigration reform and scrubbing a tax code that's out of shape and behind the times.

Xavier Becerra

#49. I talk about the three R's, that jobs equals three R's: Repeal Obamacare. Reform our tax-and-spend policies to make us the most competitive in the world. And relight America with American energy.

Keith Rothfus

#50. We have to have structural entitlement reform, major spending cuts and not tax increase-retardants on economic growth to reverse our current course toward national bankruptcy, but Obama steadfastly remains on the wrong side of all these solutions.

David Limbaugh

#51. Our tax policies, the tax relief and reform we passed in 2003 and 2005, helped get government out of the way of America's entrepreneurs, and our unemployment rate is now lower than it was in the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s.

Marsha Blackburn

#52. Welfare reform happened with reconciliation; half the Democrats voted for it. The Bush tax cuts happened with reconciliation; twelve Democratic Senators voted for it. You didn't have a real partisan issue on those times that it was used.

Kent Conrad

#53. You've got to either say you're going to cut taxes and find some spending cuts. I think we ought to reform long-term entitlement spending in the country, but you can't out of one side of your mouth say, 'Yes, we're for tax cuts, we're for spending discipline, and we're for bringing down the debt.'

Harold Ford Jr.

#54. There's nothing good about being certain about things. And I don't think there's any real talent in using language in a manipulative way, with phrases like "tax relief" or "Social Security reform." It's politically clever, but it's also completely disingenuous, and it's not something to aspire to.

Jonathan Safran Foer

#55. We shouldn't be debating whether to deal with the current code by allowing it to be extended or not. We should have a president who shows leadership and comes to Congress and says: 'You know what? We need to reform this whole tax code.'

Rob Portman

#56. There's been a lot said about Social Security reform. What has been left out of the debate is the double tax on Social Security benefits. I believe it's time to get rid of a tax that punishes seniors and discourages work and retirement savings.

Rob Simmons

#57. Moreover, from reforming the tax code to our immigration system, to commonsense legal reform, President Bush put America on notice that he will continue fighting to make the country, and the world, a better place for future generations.

Jim Sensenbrenner

#58. President Obama has ignored or dismissed proposals that would address our anti-competitive tax code and unsustainable trajectory of federal debt - including his own bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform - and submitted no plan for entitlement reform.

Glenn Hubbard

#59. In my view, until the U.S. tax policy is revised, not just tax extenders but the reform of tax policy, it makes it very attractive for us to invest on acquisition overseas.

Louis R. Chenevert

#60. What is needed is a form of tax which not only spares the small man at the expense of his wealthier rival, but actually subsidizes the small man where subsidy is necessary.

Hilaire Belloc

#61. The healthcare reform bill now includes a tanning booth tax of 10 percent. You know what this means? This whole thing could be funded by the cast of 'Jersey Shore.'

Jay Leno

#62. The introduction of a substantial Government transfer tax on all transactions might prove the most serviceable reform available,with a view to mitigating the predominance of speculation in the United States.

John Maynard Keynes

#63. Tax increases slow economic growth. Why would you raise taxes? We need to reform spending, the tens of trillions of unfunded liabilities can never be funded by tax increases, that can only be fixed by reducing spending.

Grover Norquist

#64. Our best days are in front of us. We can reform those entitlements, we can change that corporate tax code and lower it. We can put America back on track on a growth level and a growth rate that we've never seen in the history of this country.

Rick Perry

#65. When Mitt Romney says he wants to reform the tax code, hold on to your wallets. We know Mitt Romney never met a tax haven he didn't like. But his new favorite tax haven is actually not the Cayman Islands - its Paul Ryan's budget.

Chuck Schumer

#66. Virginia 's tax system needs to be fixed. The time to act is now. Do not send me any more studies. Do not send me another piecemeal approach that confuses tinkering with real reform.

Mark Warner