Political Quotes

“Well, I sure am. Anyone watching C-SPAN will see our friends on the other side making the argument day in and day out. When I hear this argument, I often think of a saying from the distinguished former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Russell Long. When talking about tax reform, Senator Long said: Some might reduce the politics to this: ``Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree.'' And since there are a lot more folks who aren't millionaires than are, the Democrats have calculated the politics of class warfare works. All of our problems could be solved if the rich paid their fair share, according to the Democrats. As politics, this might sound--I don't even think it sounds good, but as tax policy and its proposal to reduce our deficits and debt, this is the fourth red herring. It does not come close to fixing the deficit from the Obama budget. Our friends on the other side frequently cite the Tax Policy Center-- or TPC--for tax data. That makes some sense. TPC is a professional think tank that is a joint venture of two center-left think tanks, the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. With the exception of its director, Donald Marron, TPC is largely staffed by highly qualified tax professionals who worked in Democratic Treasury Departments and Democratic Hill offices. TPC is a solid professional outfit, but you can't ignore its institutional perspective. To be fair, I would say the same thing about the Heritage Foundation.…”