Stephen Harper Quotes

There's a lot of evidence you can sell people on tax increases if they think its an investment.

I see city finances within the context of an economic strategy... We are going to solve our financial problems by growing the economy, and I have rejected some corners that have called for a slash-and-burn approach, and I've rejected others who have called for raising taxes and leaving government as is.

Because of fiscal responsibility, we will keep taxes low and maintain important priorities like IPERS.

There's no reason to raise taxes. Taxes should be lower... The problem we have is that government spends too much, not that taxes are too low.

We have to deal with two issues. Spending and taxes.

People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income.

Most Republicans have made it very clear they're not interested in raising taxes. They want to reform government.

I believe Nebraskans appreciate the fiscal discipline I've brought to state government, balancing the budget without raising taxes and prioritizing education funding.

Deficit reduction is not an end in itself. It is the means to an end. Canadians must now decide what kind of country they want to build with the hard-won dividend.

My biggest objection to raising taxes is that it feeds the government addiction to spending money.

Those who pay no taxes, disposing by their votes of other people's money, have every motive to be lavish and none to economize.

We should no longer seek to have Budget surplus by end of Parliament. We should avoid tax rises.

We ought to pay down the national debt, ... The American people are tired of people who make promises about cutting taxes that they cannot keep.

Governments don't reduce deficits by raising taxes on the people; governments reduce deficits by controlling spending and stimulating new wealth.

The only way to meet pressing social needs and be fiscally responsible is to cut the runaway Pentagon budget, which now almost equals the military spending of all other countries in the world combined.

I said that this would be a Budget based on prudence for a purpose and that guides us also in our approach to public spending.

For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government . . . costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching.

The challenge for any government is how do you do two things at the same time. How do you put money forward for things like the payroll tax holiday, for things like getting a jump-start on infrastructure, for building schools, and make the decisions for long-term deficit reduction.

The problem with our deficit is not because Americans are taxed too little. The problem with the deficit is because Washington spends too much money. We have got to stop spending money we don't have.

Democrats have always wanted to grow government with revenues from our society's producers. They aren't sincere about reducing the deficit, because they will not abandon their addiction to spending other people's money.

So just to be clear, I'm not going to sign any package that somehow prevents the top rate from going up for folks at the top 2 percent.

Deficits, as I've often said, aren't caused by too little taxing, they're caused by too much spending. Presidents can't appropriate a dollar of tax payers money, only Congressmen can; and Congress is susceptible to all sorts of influences that have nothing to do with good government.

In my home state of Indiana we prove every day that you can build a growing economy on balanced budgets, low taxes.

The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich.

I suggested that countries with tighter finances think about such a [fuel] tax. We don't have the time at the moment for months of discussion.