Political Quotes

“the myth is this: in your plan, you assume that the $200 billion tax gap will magically appear tomorrow. If we knew where the $200 billion was, we would find it now. You assume that the $200 billion in uncollected taxes are available to be collected and then be spent under your budget plan the day your proposal passes. It wouldn't be uncollected if we knew where it was. It wouldn't be uncollected if we could go get it. Somebody has to go hassle these people to pay their taxes. That is the myth. Does it need to be done? Absolutely. Should we close it? Absolutely. But that is a crap shoot. You will not have 100 percent collections of all income taxes due by the day that your bill passes, if it were to pass tomorrow. That is the myth. You point out that our deficit is different than the CBO baseline. You are correct. The CBO baseline assumes, and your budget assumes, that you will allow the tax reforms that passed in 2001 and 2003 to expire. So capital gains taxes go up; dividend taxes go up; taxes on middle-income brackets go up; the 10 percent bracket disappears; AMT relief, no action. You allow those things to expire. The CBO assumes those things will expire. We assume they will stay in place because we believe that those are the drivers of the economic engine that is giving this country 4.8 percent unemployment, which is lower than the average of the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s.…”