Jon Lovitz Quotes
If I make a dollar and out of every dollar I'm taxed at 50, half, at 50 cents, I have to give, isn't that like enough?
Lovitz, Jon. "CNN Starting Point With Soledad O'Brien." CNN, Turner Broadcasting System, 25 Apr. 2012.
The Roosevelt Administration was committed to the principle that all Americans should bear some part of the sacrifice for the war effort, not only those doing the fighting and dying. The name was in itself a bit of propaganda in that at that point in time, American victory was by no means assured.
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.
An income tax had been instituted during the Civil War but had lapsed. Existing taxes were therefore all excise or head taxes—very regressive. Some politicians began floating the idea of bringing back the Income Tax. But the New York Congressmen objected on the grounds that New York would pay a much higher proportion of the taxes, then their population represented. Under the Civil War, income tax, New York State had paid one/third of the entire national tax burden.
This became known as the Buffet Principle—that the very rich should not pay a lower tax rate than the workers who make far less money than they do. President Barack Obama used this principle by name in calling for the 2011 Jobs Act which would eliminate some of the loopholes and exemptions by which the rich could avoid some or much or their tax obligation.
This was a typical argument in the 2012 battle between President Obama and the Republican conservatives. However, this was written 35 years earlier, when the exact same issue was polarizing politicians. The idea for taxing the rich more to reduce the deficit has been around since there was a Federal deficit. On most occasions the rich had enough political clout to avoid additional taxes for them and get the general public to pay instead of them. However, there have been times where they have not been able to avoid increased taxes. The New Deal lead by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Obama administration in 2013 were two such exceptions.
He was one of the richest men in America, who thought that the tax burden on the very wealthy was too low given the needs of the nation and the ability of the wealty to pay..
Jonathan Michael Lovitz is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He starred as Jay Sherman in The Critic and has appeared in numerous other television series and films, including 20 episodes of The Simpsons.
