Taxes:

Today's Republicans: Mitt Romney: I support the Bush tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts helped get our economy going again when we faced the last tough times.i It doesnt make sense to me that people get taxed when they can earn their money, get taxed when they save their money, and get taxed when they die. We should get rid of the death tax. ii Romney has signed Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, and has thus promised oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses. iii Ron Paul: If we knew and understood and read Article 1, Section 8, believe me this government would be much smaller, we would have a lot less taxes, and we could repeal the 16th amendment and get rid of the income tax.iv I lean toward a flat tax. But I want to make it real flat, like zero. v Congressman Paul has pledged to eliminate the income, estate, and capital gains taxes. vi Newt Gingrich: Why don't we match the Chinese and have zero capital gains tax? vii [The United States should] move toward an optional flat tax of 15% that would allow Americans the freedom to choose to file their taxes on a postcard, saving hundreds of billions in unnecessary costs each year. This optional flat tax system will preserve deductions on charitable giving and home ownership, and create a new personal deduction of $12,000 for every American. This deduction is well above the current poverty level, ensuring that this new system does not unfairly target the poor.viii Speaker Gingrich favors renewing the Bush tax cuts, as well as an optional 15% flat tax. ix Rick Santorum: Death should not be a taxable event, but it is. x Senator Santorum voted against the Clinton tax hike in 1993, and voted for both the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.xi Goldwater: "I share the opinion with virtually every other American that our present tax burden is onerous, often inequitable, and in need of reform. But abolition is the answer to nothing. Such precipitous action would create very serious and damaging results to the whole business of running the government. It takes money - great amounts of it - to carry on the legitimate functions of the Federal system."xii

"The income tax is the device by which we have spent ourselves into a lot of the domestic trouble that we have today. I am not naive enough though to say that we can do away with the income tax tomorrow. If we do, we have to replace it with something. It would probably be in the form of a more unfavorable tax than the one we have today." xiii "While there is something to be said for the proposition that spending will never be reduced so long as there is money in the federal treasury, I believe that as a practical matter spending cuts must come before tax cuts. If we reduce taxes before firm, principled decisions are made about expenditures, we will court deficit spending and the inflationary effects that invariably follow." xiv "What is a fair share [of taxes]? I believe that the requirements of justice here are perfectly clear: government has a right to claim an equal percentage of each man's wealth, and no more. Property taxes are typically levied on this basis. Excise and sales taxes are based on the same principle though the tax is levied on a transaction rather than on property. The principle is equally valid with regards to incomes, inheritances and gifts." xv "Although I agree wholeheartedly with the wish to cut taxes, and am committed to policies which would make it possible, I opposed the [Kennedy tax cuts] because [they] could prove dangerously inflationary in the long run. There has been no corresponding cut in government spending but, instead, the announced prospect of continued deficit spending." xvi "If there ever was a time in the history of our nation when we needed individual and collective courage, starting with the president right on down through every elected official including the citizenry as a whole, it is now. We must take a hard look at the deficit that is going to grow. We will have to look at tax rates that will have to be raised. We must look at an economy that is good now, but might not be so good in the future. And then, we begin to look at the problems and possible solutions."xvii Notes: Goldwater voiced support for the Kemp-Roth tax bill, citing that it would force the Reagan administration to tackle the problem of inflation. What is most notable about his statement of support for the bill is that the Senator does not claim that the act would create jobs or pay for itself, agreeing that there would be a "deficit-deepening effect without appropriate spending cuts to counter that effect."xviii Barry Goldwater does not appear to have been a believer in the prevalent Republican idea today that tax cuts create jobs, pay for themselves, and ultimately force legislators to cut spending and shrink the size of government. I think that Goldwater would also be appalled if he learned that the lesson Dick Cheney learned from Ronald Reagan's tenure in the Oval Office was that "deficits don't matter," as Goldwater took the Gipper to task for the ballooning deficits the President presided over shortly before retiring from the Senate. xix

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http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Mitt_Romney_Tax_Reform.htm http://2012.republican-candidates.org/Romney/Taxes.php http://www.atr.org/mitt-romney-signs-taxpayer-protection-pledge-a1872 http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Ron_Paul_Tax_Reform.htm http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Ron_Paul_Tax_Reform.htm http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/taxes/ http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Newt_Gingrich_Tax_Reform.htm http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/presidential-campaign-2012-newt-gingrich-issues.html http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Rick_Santorum_Tax_Reform.htm http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whitepapers/?subsec=137&id=902 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=rQKKVauEoioC&dat=19640821&printsec=frontpage&hl=en http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntAqtV52SC0 The Conscience of a Conservative, 65. Ibid., 44. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=rQKKVauEoioC&dat=19640821&printsec=frontpage&hl=en Emphasis added. See Pure Goldwater, 362. http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=goldwater%20kemp %20roth&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshelf1.library.cmu.edu%2Fcgi-bin %2Ftiff2pdf%2Fheinz %2Fbox00322%2Ffld00014%2Fbdl0008%2Fdoc0016%2Fheinz.pdf&ei=uWwsT4WpC5KbiQfT3sXKDg&usg=AF QjCNGMZ2_Br0_HT4FftbJpxDtIWdJNVQ&cad=rja http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/4912