James Longley said "Since 1980. Theoretically Congress has only raised taxes by just about $500 billion over the last 16 years. The reality is we have increased spending somewhere in the vicinity, in other words, if one took the baseline approach which was at $590 billion a year in 1980 and carried that forward, despite officially raising taxes only by $500 billion, there has been over $5 trillion of increased spending. What is going on? What has really happened is because much of the tax system is on a percentage basis, we have built in automatic tax increases into the Tax Code that generate more and more revenue every year, whether or not the tax increases were legislated. Then on top of those increases, we have added additional increases in taxes in a manner that has always protected the Government, always made the Government look as if we were the innocent party." @ PoliticalQuotes.com

On the recordMarch 6, 1996

Since 1980. Theoretically Congress has only raised taxes by just about $500 billion over the last 16 years. The reality is we have increased spending somewhere in the vicinity, in other words, if one took the baseline approach which was at $590 billion a year in 1980 and carried that forward, despite officially raising taxes only by $500 billion, there has been over $5 trillion of increased spending. What is going on? What has really happened is because much of the tax system is on a percentage basis, we have built in automatic tax increases into the Tax Code that generate more and more revenue every year, whether or not the tax increases were legislated. Then on top of those increases, we have added additional increases in taxes in a manner that has always protected the Government, always made the Government look as if we were the innocent party.

Said by

James Longley

Republican · Maine

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing tax increases and government spending during a floor speech.

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