Political Quotes

“a challenge is facing this country, and I think there is excellent news for our future, for families, for wages that give families a decent living, if we make some simple changes down here in Washington. Washington cannot do everything, and eventually, you know, in this country we are going to have to produce a good product that people around the world in this country want to buy, and we can sell it at a reasonable price. Government can do some things to make sure that happens. Think for a moment as you look at tax policies around the world and in the industrialized nations, and I see our chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means here. We in the United States penalize savings and investment more than any of those countries. If you look at what has happened the last decade, we see the United States trailing in savings. Out of every take-home dollar in the United States, we are saving about 4 cents. That compares with about 18 cents in Japan, up to 34 cents out of every take-home dollar saved in South Korea. So we are shy on savings. Part of it is because we have tax policies that discourage savings, almost penalize savings. If you look at the investment, the new investment in machinery and equipment over the last 10 years, again we see the United States investing less per worker than those other industrialized countries. So it is not surprising that the result is a lower, slower rate of increase in productivity.”