Political Quotes

“I yield 2 more minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) in order to steer the discussion away from religion and back toward economic literacy. Mr. McCOTTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank you; and before I steer on to that path, I would refer the distinguished gentleman to Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical because it shows where the government is involved in taxation for the purposes of, quote, unquote, leveling, which is trying to discern what is the proper level of material equality in a free society, that the compulsory act of government of taking that money from people and then expending it on someone's behalf vicariously is certainly not tantamount to the moral good in a virtuous society that is achieved by the individual donating that money directly to charity and engaging in the life of their community to help their fellow citizens who are less fortunate. But I am sorry, I will not continue to go down that path. It is also interesting, the gentleman talks about not wanting to have class warfare or class envy at the very time he engages in it. I find that disingenuous, and I will not do the same. At the end of the day, what I would like, I think, to help frame my debate is, what level of taxation is enough? What level is enough? What is optimum for your particular, I assume hypothetical, level of material equality in this country that would be dictated by the government's confiscatory tax policies and arbitrary policies in appropriation?…”