Dan Bartlett Quotes

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.

Raising taxes in an economic downturn is not a good idea.

I am not for raising taxes in a recession, especially when it comes to job creators that we need so desperately to start creating jobs again.

In the middle of a recession no tax increase is justified because it kills jobs, and any tax increase is a job-killing measure and should be defeated.

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

Every time we've cut the capital gains tax, the economy has grown. Whenever we raise the capital gains tax, it's been damaged. It's one of those taxes that most clearly damages economic growth and jobs.

If you're going to go increase taxes on small businesses, you're going to slow down the extent to which we're able to reduce unemployment. So I think it's a serious mistake; the wrong time to raise taxes.

I really do believe most people understand raising tax rates is bad for the economy, it costs jobs. It actually in the long term undermines revenue.

I am a supply sider. If you cut the right taxes, you will make more money.

A temporary reduction in tax rates on individual incomes can be a powerful weapon against recession.

Here's the problem if you keep raising tax rates: You slow down economic growth.

As Ronald Reagan understood, the difference between a good tax structure and a poor one has a very real impact not only on how much money we have in our pockets every April 15th, but whether we have a job to support our families in the first place.

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.

We will attract more people to Kentucky by lowering our income tax rate. In fact, lowering the income tax rate is the single most important thing we can do to create opportunity.

Tax increases appear to have a very large sustained and highly significant negative impact on output.

Someone is going to have to explain to me at some time how raising taxes on job-creators is going to create more jobs.

When we were at peace, Democrats wanted to raise taxes. Now there's a war, so Democrats want to raise taxes. When there was a surplus, Democrats wanted to raise taxes. Now that there is a mild recession, Democrats want to raise taxes.

I am not for raising taxes on the American people in a soft economy.

It's a lethal thing to suddenly raise taxes.

The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of the recession because that would just suck up and take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.

Hiking taxes on the so-called wealthy would help send us into a recession because so many small businesses report their income on individual tax returns. If taxes are raised, they will be less likely to be able to hire new workers and make new capital investments.

What I want to do is create more taxpayers, not more taxes.

Well, certainly the Democrats have been arguing to raise the capital gains tax on all Americans. Obama says he wants to do that. That would slow down economic growth. It's not necessarily helpful to the economy. Every time we've cut the capital gains tax, the economy has grown. Whenever we raise the capital gains tax, it's been damaged.

It has always amazed me how tax cuts don't work until they take effect. Mr. Obama's experience with deferred tax rate increases will be the reverse. The economy will collapse in 2011.

When I became governor, spending actually increased 28 percent my first term. Revenue increased 42 percent my first term without raising anybody's taxes. We did it because we had more taxpayers with more taxable income. That's how you get the revenue up. We did that without raising anybody's taxes.