I am convinced that the larger incomes of the country would actually yield more revenue to the Government if the basis of taxation were scientifically revised downward.
Calvin Coolidge
The Public Record
Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A member of the Republican Party, he was known for his quiet demeanor and strong support for business and limited government. Coolidge's presidency is often associated with the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, and he famously advocated for a hands-off approach to the economy, believing that government should interfere as little as possible in the lives of citizens and businesses.
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The country is now feeling the direct stimulus which came from the passage of the last revenue bill, and under the assurance of a reasonable system of taxation there is every prospect of an era of prosperity of unprecedented proportions.
It will be very easy to measure the strength of the attachment to reduced taxation by the power with which increased appropriations are resisted.
Anybody can reduce taxes, but it is not so easy to stand in the gap and resist the passage of increasing appropriation bills which would make tax reduction impossible.
Although that damage has now been done, I believe its continuation to be detrimental To the public welfare and bound to decrease public revenues, so that it ought to be repealed.
When I approved the present tax law, I stated publicly that I did so in spite of certain provisions which I believed unwise and harmful.
But the people must know that their Government is placing upon them no unnecessary burden.
Perhaps the most important work that this session of the Congress can do is to continue a policy of economy and further reduce the cost of government, in order that we may have a reduction of taxes for the next fiscal year.
It would appear to be elementary that the more the Government expends the more it must require every producer to contribute out of his production to the Public Treasury, and the less he will have for his own benefit.
No system has been devised, I do not think any system could be devised, under which any person living in this country could escape being affected by the cost of our government.
The depression that overtook business, the disaster experienced in agriculture, the lack of employment and the terrific shrinkage in all values which our country experienced in a most acute form in 1920, resulted in no small measure from…
It is an ominous fact that only the National Government is reducing its debt.
I do not profess that we can secure an era of perfection in human existence, but we can provide an era of peace and prosperity, attended with freedom and justice and made more and more satisfying by the ministrations of the charities and…
Our country is almost unique in its ability to discharge fully and promptly all its obligations at home and abroad, and provide for all its inhabitants an increase in material resources, in intellectual vigor and in moral power.
America has taken her place in the world as a Republic--free, independent, powerful.
Whenever they declare a righteous purpose there need be no doubt that they will be heard.
It is with these voices that America should speak.
It is necessary not only to have faith, but to make sacrifices for our faith.
Our authority among the nations must be represented by justice and mercy.
The time has come for a more practical use of moral power, and more reliance upon the principle that right makes its own might.
For the healing of the nations there must be good will and charity, confidence and peace.
It has had enough of the wrongful use of material power.
The world has had enough of the curse of hatred and selfishness, of destruction and war.
But they must not be cloistered; they must not be impractical; they must not be ineffective.
We want that vision which lifts men and nations above themselves.
Politicians like Calvin Coolidge
