Rush Limbaugh Quotes
As far as I'm concerned, the people who aren't paying taxes don't get to run around claiming that they built everything, that the built the roads and that they built the bridges and so forth.
Limbaugh, Rush. The Rush Limbaugh Show. Premiere Networks, 16 Jan. 2014.
This is an oratorical extension of the famous quotation of Oliver Wendell Homes Jr. See {603708}
The George W. Bush administration when they had a Republican-controlled Congress, had amended the tax laws to treat the earnings of the hedge fund managers differently from people who manage other enterprises in the nation. They gave a group of very wealthy managers whose earnings were already amongst the highest of any managers in the country a huge tax break, while little public attention was paid to the subtlety of complex tax laws. Daschle and others began to draw public attention to the inequity.
As a result of years of lobbying many vested interests were getting tax exemptions for their activities. Some of the richest corporations and people paid little or no taxes. This was like the old European monarchies where the dukes and nobles got tax exemptions from the king and the middle class and poor people paid a much larger percentage of their income and wealth than did the nobility. Fairness in taxation is very difficult in practice. See {633629}
Corporate and business taxes were anathema to Republicans in 1899 as they were a century later. Roosevelt shocked the Republican base with statements like this, and when he implemented them, he became the most popular politician in America—possibly even more so than George Washington.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was an American radio personality, conservative political commentator, author, and television show host. He was best known as the host of The Rush Limbaugh Show, which was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations.