David Axelrod Quotes

Obama is not only obstructing budget reform; it's almost as if he is trying to make matters worse.

If you're opposed to the budget I submitted to the General Assembly, you're for a tax increase.

Cutting spending is harder than raising taxes. Every dollar of federal spending has a constituency.

Mr. Reagan will raise taxes and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.

Republicans must stop putting tax increases on the fiscal cliff negotiating table and start demanding that Democrats put forth serious proposals to reduce spending.

The American people elected us here to cut spending so we can create an environment for jobs in America. The House has acted. We have demonstrated that we want to see spending, discretionary spending, brought down to levels of 2008. We've seen no counteraction. We have seen no position that has been expressed by the other side at all.

One of the reasons we don't have our deficit under control is because Republicans are wusses and won't tell their base a simple fact that everyone knows. We can't eliminate the deficit without raising some revenue... They're wusses.

I hate big government, but I really hate a government that doesn't work. So when 'they say we either have to raise taxes or cut core services,' it's actually a 'false choice.'

As a matter of policy, increasing taxes on the most economically productive group, which already generates 60 percent of the nation's federal revenues, during a sustained period of economic doldrums is a wretched idea.

The problem is government spends too much. So raising taxes is what politicians do, instead of reducing spending.

In order to reduce the deficit, there has to be revenue in addition to cuts.

I think what both Republicans and Democrats need to do and the leaders on both sides is to recognize that if sequester takes place, it would be disastrous for our national defense and very frankly for a lot of very important domestic programs. They have a responsibility to come together, find the money necessary to de-trigger sequester.

Sequestration, sequestation - however you pronounce that word - and gridlock aren't all that bad.

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

The state of our state is fragile …. Our revenue system is broken because it has relied on regressive and unstable taxes …. I refuse to balance this budget on the backs of the children, the elderly, and the poor.

The most equitable way to substantially reduce the deficit is to delay reductions in the top tax bracket for upper-income taxpayers.

Foreign policy debates are frequently segregated from domestic policy ones, so commentators who propose increasing the defense budget or sending more foreign aid are seldom asked to explain which domestic programs they’d cut or which taxes they’d raise, in order to find the money.

To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.

Most people who talk about either entitlement cuts or revenue - when you have to put pen to paper, it is much more difficult.

In times of huge fiscal deficits, no new revenues can be ignored, and renouncing any becomes well nigh politically impossible.

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.

The dual effect of high growth creating higher income that's taxed by government at all levels, combined with lessening demands placed on government that occurs during economic prosperity, is a worthy objective.

The truth is we need to build an economy going forward with all of us, when we all move forward and the payment of a national debt is not the responsibility of one group of Americans versus another.

We vetoed five income tax increases during my time as governor. We cut business taxes $2.3 billion, and we cut regulation by one-third of what my predecessor put in place.

The Republicans can send the nation into turmoil, but we will not come to any agreement that does not include new revenue - and not just token new revenue. It is their choice.