Whither the Conservative Movement? Apendix - Reagan
II. Ronald Reagan
A. “Encroaching Control” 7-28-1961 Orange County Press Club
1. “Once we were told that the income tax would never be greater than 2 percent and that only from the rich. In our lifetime, this law has grown from 31 to more 440,000 words. We have received this progressive tax direct from Karl Marx who designed it as the prime essential of a socialist state. In the surtax brackets, the steepest rate of increase occurs through the middle income range where are to be found the bulk of our small business men, professional people, and supervisory personnel – the people Marx said should be taxed out of existence.”
2. “There can be no moral justification of the progressive tax. Perhaps that is why the bureaucrats pretend it is proportional taxation. Proportional taxation we would gladly accept on the theory that those better able to pay should remove some of the burden from those who are least able to pay.”
3. “No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden of one-third of its national income. Today, 31 cents of every dollar earned is tax and of that 31 cents, 23 cents goes to the federal government; leaving 8 cents to be shared by state, county, and local community. No wonder we are told to ask for federal aid! But wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the money here in the first place instead of running it through that puzzle palace on Potomac only to get it back minus a sizable carrying charge?”
4. “Here is the main battleground! We must reduce the government’s supply of money and deny it the right to borrow.”
5. “A five-year gradual reduction of rates makes [the Herlong-Baker Bill] the best tax reform bill introduced in the last hundred years. For every billion saved in government spending, we can have a two-and-a-half percent reduction of income tax. If your Congressman should say we must cut costs first and then reduce taxes – don’t stand for it! Remind him that no government in history has ever voluntarily reduced itself in size.”
B. “Rendezvous with Destiny” 06-08-1965 Testimonial for Ohio Rep. John Ashbrook
1. “You know who the taxpayer is – that’s someone who works for the Government and doesn’t have to take a civil service exam.”
2. “We are taxed in our food, our drink, and our shelter with the Government taking the highest percentage from the productive free economy than any society has ever done without ruin. Now we are told that we have a $5 billion cut in the excise tax, but we’ll have a $5 billion deficit, also. And we won’t really be taxed less. They’re just going to rearrange it. Apply it to somewhere else. They keep fooling us with the idea that we can rob Peter to pay Paul. Well, it’s time we found out that Peter isn’t loaded and no one else is. We’re robbing Paul to pay Paul. People pay taxes. To pretend you can cut taxes without cutting the burden that causes them is to perpetrate a fraud upon the people.”
C. “Five Year Economic Program” 9-9-1980
1. “We must move boldly, decisively, and quickly to control the runaway growth of Federal spending, to remove the tax disincentives that are throttling the economy, and to reform the regulatory web that is smothering it.”
2. [First part of the plan was to cut spending.]
“The second major element of my economic program is a tax rate reduction plan. This calls for an across-the-board, three year reduction in personal income tax rates…My goal is to implement three reductions in a systematic and planned manner.
“More than any single thing, high rates of taxation destroy incentive to earn, to save, to invest. And they cripple productivity, lead to deficit financing and inflation, and create unemployment.
“We can go a long way toward restoring the economic health of this country by establishing reasonable, fair levels of taxation.”
3. “The most insidious tax increase is the one we must pay when inflation pushes us into higher tax brackets. As long as inflation is with us, taxes should be based on real income. Federal personal income taxes should be based on real income. Federal personal income taxes should be indexed to compensate for inflation, once tax rates have been reduced.”
D. “1981 SOU Message on Economic Recovery” February 18, 1981
1. “It is important to note that we are only reducing the rate of increase in taxing and spending. We are not attempting to cut either spending or taxing to a level below that which we already have.”
2. “Marching in lockstep with the whole program of reductions in spending is the equally important program of reduced tax rates. Both are essential if we are to have economic recovery.”
3. “The taxing power of the Government must be used to provide revenues for legitimate Government purposes. It must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change. We’ve tried that and surely must be able to see it doesn’t work.”
E. “1982 SOU Address” January, 1982
1. “Together, we not only cut the increase in Government spending nearly in half, we brought about the largest tax reductions and the most sweeping changes in our tax structure since the beginning of the century. And because we indexed future taxes to the rate of inflation, we took away Government’s built-in profit on inflation and its hidden incentive to grow larger at the expense of American workers.
“Together, after 50 years of taking power away from the hands of the people in their states and local communities we have started returning power and resources to them.”
F. “1984 SOU Address” 1-25-1984
1. “Whether the Government borrows or raises taxes, it will be taking the same amount of money from the private sector, and, either way, it’s too much. Simple fairness dictates Government must not raise taxes on families struggling to pay their bills. The root of the problem is that Government’s share is more than we can afford if we are to have a sound economy.”
2. “To talk of meeting the present situation by increasing taxes is a Band-Aid solution, which does nothing to cure an illness that has been coming on for half a century – to say nothing of the fact that it poses a real threat to economic recovery. Let’s remember that a substantial amount of income tax is presently owed and not paid by the people in the underground economy. It would be immoral to make those who are paying taxes pay more to compensate for those who aren’t paying their share.”
G. “2nd Inaugural Address” January 21, 1985
1. “We must simply our tax system, make it more fair and bring the rates down for all who work and earn. We must think anew and move with a new boldness so every American who seeks work can find work; so the least among us shall have an equal chance to achieve the greatest things – to be heroes who heal our sick, feed the hungry, protect peace among nations and leave this world a better place.”
2. “A dynamic economy, with more citizens working and paying taxes, will be our strongest tool to bring down the budget deficits. But an almost unbroken 50 years of deficit spending has finally brought us to a time of reckoning.”
3. “We must act now to protect future generations from government’s desire to spend its citizens’ money and tax them into servitude.”
H. “1985 SOU Address” 2-6-1985
1. “Four years ago, we said we would invigorate our economy by giving people greater freedom and incentives to take risks, and letting them keep more of what they earned.”
I. “Overhauling the Tax System” 5-28-1985
1. “For the sake of fairness, simplicity, and growth we must radically change the structure of a tax system that still treats our earnings as the personal property of the IRS; radically change a system that still treats people earning similar incomes much differently regarding the tax they pay and, yes, radically changing a system that still causes some to invest their money, not to build a better mousetrap but simply to avoid a tax trap.”
2. “Death and taxes may be inevitable, but unjust taxes are not. The first American Revolution was sparked by an unshakeable conviction: Taxation without representation is tyranny. Two centuries later a second American Revolution for hope and opportunity is gathering force again, a peaceful revolution but born of popular resentment against a system that is unwise, unwanted, and unfair.”
3. “We are determined to cut back on special preferences that have long favored some industries over others. We would repeal the investment tax credit and reform the depreciation system. Incentives for research and experimentation, however, would be maintained.
“There is one group of losers in our tax plan, those individuals and corporations who are not paying their fair share or, for that matter, any share. These abuses cannot be tolerated. From now on they shall pay a minimum tax. The free rides are over.”
J. “1986 SOU Address” Feb 4, 1986
1. “How often we read of a husband and wife – both working, struggling from paycheck to paycheck to raise a family, meet a mortgage, pay their taxes and bills. And yet some in Congress say taxes must be raised. Well, I’m sorry, but their asking the wrong people to tighten their belts. It’s time we reduced the Federal budget and left the family budget alone. We do not face large deficits because American families are under-taxed; we face those deficits because the Federal Government overspends.”
K. “1987 SOU Address” 1-27-1987
1. “For years I’ve asked that we stop pushing onto our children the excesses of our Government. What the Congress finally needs to do is pass a constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget and force Government to live within its means.”
L. “We, the People” 9-15-1988
1. “We said something shocking. Taxes out to be reduced, not raised. We cut the tax rates for the working folks of America. We indexed taxes, and that stopped bracket creep which kicked average wage-earners into higher tax brackets when they had only received a cost-of-living pay raise. And we initiated reform of the unfairness in our tax system. And what do you know – the top five percent of earners are paying a higher percentage of the total tax revenue than they ever had before, and millions of earners at the bottom of the scale have been freed from paying any income tax at all.”
A. “Encroaching Control” 7-28-1961 Orange County Press Club
1. “Once we were told that the income tax would never be greater than 2 percent and that only from the rich. In our lifetime, this law has grown from 31 to more 440,000 words. We have received this progressive tax direct from Karl Marx who designed it as the prime essential of a socialist state. In the surtax brackets, the steepest rate of increase occurs through the middle income range where are to be found the bulk of our small business men, professional people, and supervisory personnel – the people Marx said should be taxed out of existence.”
2. “There can be no moral justification of the progressive tax. Perhaps that is why the bureaucrats pretend it is proportional taxation. Proportional taxation we would gladly accept on the theory that those better able to pay should remove some of the burden from those who are least able to pay.”
3. “No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden of one-third of its national income. Today, 31 cents of every dollar earned is tax and of that 31 cents, 23 cents goes to the federal government; leaving 8 cents to be shared by state, county, and local community. No wonder we are told to ask for federal aid! But wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the money here in the first place instead of running it through that puzzle palace on Potomac only to get it back minus a sizable carrying charge?”
4. “Here is the main battleground! We must reduce the government’s supply of money and deny it the right to borrow.”
5. “A five-year gradual reduction of rates makes [the Herlong-Baker Bill] the best tax reform bill introduced in the last hundred years. For every billion saved in government spending, we can have a two-and-a-half percent reduction of income tax. If your Congressman should say we must cut costs first and then reduce taxes – don’t stand for it! Remind him that no government in history has ever voluntarily reduced itself in size.”
B. “Rendezvous with Destiny” 06-08-1965 Testimonial for Ohio Rep. John Ashbrook
1. “You know who the taxpayer is – that’s someone who works for the Government and doesn’t have to take a civil service exam.”
2. “We are taxed in our food, our drink, and our shelter with the Government taking the highest percentage from the productive free economy than any society has ever done without ruin. Now we are told that we have a $5 billion cut in the excise tax, but we’ll have a $5 billion deficit, also. And we won’t really be taxed less. They’re just going to rearrange it. Apply it to somewhere else. They keep fooling us with the idea that we can rob Peter to pay Paul. Well, it’s time we found out that Peter isn’t loaded and no one else is. We’re robbing Paul to pay Paul. People pay taxes. To pretend you can cut taxes without cutting the burden that causes them is to perpetrate a fraud upon the people.”
C. “Five Year Economic Program” 9-9-1980
1. “We must move boldly, decisively, and quickly to control the runaway growth of Federal spending, to remove the tax disincentives that are throttling the economy, and to reform the regulatory web that is smothering it.”
2. [First part of the plan was to cut spending.]
“The second major element of my economic program is a tax rate reduction plan. This calls for an across-the-board, three year reduction in personal income tax rates…My goal is to implement three reductions in a systematic and planned manner.
“More than any single thing, high rates of taxation destroy incentive to earn, to save, to invest. And they cripple productivity, lead to deficit financing and inflation, and create unemployment.
“We can go a long way toward restoring the economic health of this country by establishing reasonable, fair levels of taxation.”
3. “The most insidious tax increase is the one we must pay when inflation pushes us into higher tax brackets. As long as inflation is with us, taxes should be based on real income. Federal personal income taxes should be based on real income. Federal personal income taxes should be indexed to compensate for inflation, once tax rates have been reduced.”
D. “1981 SOU Message on Economic Recovery” February 18, 1981
1. “It is important to note that we are only reducing the rate of increase in taxing and spending. We are not attempting to cut either spending or taxing to a level below that which we already have.”
2. “Marching in lockstep with the whole program of reductions in spending is the equally important program of reduced tax rates. Both are essential if we are to have economic recovery.”
3. “The taxing power of the Government must be used to provide revenues for legitimate Government purposes. It must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change. We’ve tried that and surely must be able to see it doesn’t work.”
E. “1982 SOU Address” January, 1982
1. “Together, we not only cut the increase in Government spending nearly in half, we brought about the largest tax reductions and the most sweeping changes in our tax structure since the beginning of the century. And because we indexed future taxes to the rate of inflation, we took away Government’s built-in profit on inflation and its hidden incentive to grow larger at the expense of American workers.
“Together, after 50 years of taking power away from the hands of the people in their states and local communities we have started returning power and resources to them.”
F. “1984 SOU Address” 1-25-1984
1. “Whether the Government borrows or raises taxes, it will be taking the same amount of money from the private sector, and, either way, it’s too much. Simple fairness dictates Government must not raise taxes on families struggling to pay their bills. The root of the problem is that Government’s share is more than we can afford if we are to have a sound economy.”
2. “To talk of meeting the present situation by increasing taxes is a Band-Aid solution, which does nothing to cure an illness that has been coming on for half a century – to say nothing of the fact that it poses a real threat to economic recovery. Let’s remember that a substantial amount of income tax is presently owed and not paid by the people in the underground economy. It would be immoral to make those who are paying taxes pay more to compensate for those who aren’t paying their share.”
G. “2nd Inaugural Address” January 21, 1985
1. “We must simply our tax system, make it more fair and bring the rates down for all who work and earn. We must think anew and move with a new boldness so every American who seeks work can find work; so the least among us shall have an equal chance to achieve the greatest things – to be heroes who heal our sick, feed the hungry, protect peace among nations and leave this world a better place.”
2. “A dynamic economy, with more citizens working and paying taxes, will be our strongest tool to bring down the budget deficits. But an almost unbroken 50 years of deficit spending has finally brought us to a time of reckoning.”
3. “We must act now to protect future generations from government’s desire to spend its citizens’ money and tax them into servitude.”
H. “1985 SOU Address” 2-6-1985
1. “Four years ago, we said we would invigorate our economy by giving people greater freedom and incentives to take risks, and letting them keep more of what they earned.”
I. “Overhauling the Tax System” 5-28-1985
1. “For the sake of fairness, simplicity, and growth we must radically change the structure of a tax system that still treats our earnings as the personal property of the IRS; radically change a system that still treats people earning similar incomes much differently regarding the tax they pay and, yes, radically changing a system that still causes some to invest their money, not to build a better mousetrap but simply to avoid a tax trap.”
2. “Death and taxes may be inevitable, but unjust taxes are not. The first American Revolution was sparked by an unshakeable conviction: Taxation without representation is tyranny. Two centuries later a second American Revolution for hope and opportunity is gathering force again, a peaceful revolution but born of popular resentment against a system that is unwise, unwanted, and unfair.”
3. “We are determined to cut back on special preferences that have long favored some industries over others. We would repeal the investment tax credit and reform the depreciation system. Incentives for research and experimentation, however, would be maintained.
“There is one group of losers in our tax plan, those individuals and corporations who are not paying their fair share or, for that matter, any share. These abuses cannot be tolerated. From now on they shall pay a minimum tax. The free rides are over.”
J. “1986 SOU Address” Feb 4, 1986
1. “How often we read of a husband and wife – both working, struggling from paycheck to paycheck to raise a family, meet a mortgage, pay their taxes and bills. And yet some in Congress say taxes must be raised. Well, I’m sorry, but their asking the wrong people to tighten their belts. It’s time we reduced the Federal budget and left the family budget alone. We do not face large deficits because American families are under-taxed; we face those deficits because the Federal Government overspends.”
K. “1987 SOU Address” 1-27-1987
1. “For years I’ve asked that we stop pushing onto our children the excesses of our Government. What the Congress finally needs to do is pass a constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget and force Government to live within its means.”
L. “We, the People” 9-15-1988
1. “We said something shocking. Taxes out to be reduced, not raised. We cut the tax rates for the working folks of America. We indexed taxes, and that stopped bracket creep which kicked average wage-earners into higher tax brackets when they had only received a cost-of-living pay raise. And we initiated reform of the unfairness in our tax system. And what do you know – the top five percent of earners are paying a higher percentage of the total tax revenue than they ever had before, and millions of earners at the bottom of the scale have been freed from paying any income tax at all.”
© 2004 by Xpatriated Texan
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