Jay Leno Quotes

Warren Buffett pays taxes on a smaller percentage of his billions in income than his cleaning lady.

It's really a question of fairness and what kind of country we're going to live in. There are 22,000 people making over $1 million. They're paying an effective tax rate in the teens. As Warren Buffett said, he pays less in taxes effectively than his secretary does. That's not right.

I did a little study of my office, and the average worker pays a higher tax rate than I do. If the government needs money, it should get if from me rather than my secretary of the person who will serve my lunch today.

Everyone wants the rich to pay more in taxes.

You know what isn't class warfare? Progressive taxation, as in, say, expecting billionaires to pay at least as much in taxes as their secretaries. Ideally, in fact, they should pay more.

Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don't pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.

It is human nature on the part of those who pay graduated taxes to attack all taxes based on the ability to pay. These are the same complainants who for a generation blocked the imposition of a graduated income tax. They are the same complainants who would impose the type of flat sales tax which places the burden of the government more on those least able to pay and less on those most able to pay.

In this time of need, the people who can afford it, those making more than $1 million a year, should not pay a tax rate that is less than their secretary pays. This is not class envy. This is not class warfare. This is basic arithmetic.

Since the lobbyists and lawyers for the rich are so good at these things, I think they can avoid any increased tax rate so I would have a minimum tax.

Tax fairness is very difficult to achieve. Each individual says, ‘Tax codes which make others pay more is fair to me. If I have to pay more, the code is unfair’.

I have paid over $10 billion in taxes. But the government should collect even more from people like me.

I do not believe that the top rate should be lowered for individuals who are making more than $1 million a year. I don't think there's any need to eliminate the estate tax.

There are a few things that we can do. One of them is that we can increase the taxes that people are paying who are the extremely wealthy in our communities. So, 70 percent, 80 percent, we've had it as high as 90 percent.

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.

People like me, whose income largely comes from dividends, should pay more taxes.

American businesses and upper incomes pay a larger portion of the federal taxes of our national taxes than any country in the world.

Friends, I'm angry about what's happening in politics today! Why is it wrong to ask the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations to pay their fair share?

Rich people don't pay taxes? Of course they pay taxes - they pay tons in taxes. They pay for everyone else who doesn't pay taxes.

Yes, the rich will find ways to avoid paying more taxes, courtesy of clever accountants and tax attorneys. But this has always been the case, regardless of where the tax rate is set.

If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains, his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretary's. In fact a very small percentage of people in this country pay a big chunk of the taxes.

The alternative minimum tax was designed to prevent the very wealthiest Americans from overusing certain tax benefits to avoid most of their tax burden.

I personally - if I were designing the tax code - would have a tax code in which Mitt Romney paid more than 13 percent, given what I know about the kind of investments he made money from.

I think the latest estimates were that we have about 250,000 millionaires and billionaires. President Obama wants to increase their taxes 13 percent.

Tax should be the same for everybody.

I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word 'fair' in connection with income tax policies.