Austan Goolsbee Quotes

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.

I don't support any increase in income tax rates.

The Clinton tax increase - which was an increase in taxes primarily on upper-income people - not only made the tax code more nearly progressive, it preceded one of the most productive economic periods in American life.

Tax rates should never be raised in some brackets without being raised in all brackets.

America's got quite reasonable tax rates from an employee point of view.

I will never support any tax increase on middle-income earners, ever... If you're not going to eliminate loopholes and exemptions, then I wouldn't support lowering rates.

I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.

Victory Tax

It seems idle to speculate in the abstract as to whether or not a progressive income tax schedule rising to rates in excess of 70 percent are justifiable …. The fact is that such rates cannot be successfully collected.

I think the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent.

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

I have continuously said that, at the very minimum, the Bush tax cuts for income under $250,000 should be extended.

Believe me, I understand that most higher rate taxpayers are not the super-rich.

If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it.

We're going to look awfully stupid if we give income tax relief to people who do not pay income taxes.

Americans don't think we should be raising taxes on anybody, especially in the middle of a recession.

Whoever is for higher taxes, feel free to pay higher taxes.

I do think there is room at the very top for marginal tax changes.

Contrary to the myth that Mr. Bush cut taxes only for the wealthy, the 2001 tax cut reduced taxes for every income-tax payer in the country.

Marginal tax rates are the lowest they've been in generations, and all we can talk about is tax cuts.

The share of income that small business people are paying in taxes is the lowest it has been in 65 years - since Obama has cut taxes 18 or 22 times for small business.

I can't imagine an argument that says that raising marginal tax rates on high income people, many of whom are business owners, is a recipe for economic growth.

No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama's plan will see one single penny of their tax raised, whether it's their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax.

There are people who enjoy the life in England but don't pay a penny in tax, whereas my footballers pay more than half their income in tax.

I'm not for raising taxes on anyone - period.