Erskine Bowles Quotes

There are some tax expenditures that are there for very obvious and very important and very good policy reasons. Whether it's the charitable deduction or the deduction for homes, it's not a loophole.

That’s why the tax code is so long [76,000 pages]. So we can take advantage of it.

Everyone now has a sacred cow in the tax code. For my money, the most sacred thing of all is our country and its growth, but the sacred cows have turned into a pack of wolves.

What I want to do is make certain that no one's taxes go up. Let's look at cleaning up the tax code.

The precise point at which a tax deduction becomes a 'loophole' or a tax incentive becomes a 'subsidy for special interests' is one of the great mysteries of politics.

Taxes are always too high.

A tax code becomes an instrument of social policy.

Over the years, the tax code has become a vehicle for political favoritism and social engineering.

Many tax experts say a key element to any fundamental overhaul is getting rid of certain deductions for businesses - the 'special-interest giveaways that are masked as tax breaks,' as House Republicans describe many of them in their own proposal.

It's widely accepted that it is reasonable for a government to use tax policy to change behaviour.

Tax policy is not about compassion.

I'm for tax reform, not tax increases.

Tax expenditures for middle- and working-class Americans - like the earned income tax credit - aren't thought of as loopholes; they're just thought of as benefits.

That's the biggest problem, is the tax code itself.

I have no tax breaks or corporate interests to be supported by Barack Obama.

We have points in common with the FDP, particularly when it comes to tax.

Tax can be structured in a way that actually encourages investment in infrastructure and encourages investment in Australia from overseas.

There is no difference, in fairness or economics, between lowering taxes on a favored group and spending money on a favored group.

Bribing rich people to help poor people, rather than helping poor people directly, is a popular approach because the cost of tax breaks doesn't show up on the government books.

We have a tax code that favors debt over equity.

If we think that high marginal tax rates are bad because they distort incentives, the same is then true for tax subsidies.

The tax code is just too big.

I know a bit about taxation and the remarkable effort that goes in to avoiding it.

Do you realize that $150 billion of our tax money is given to the corporations, unions and wealthy people for tax breaks, special subsidies and special regulations? That money would be available for health and education and building bridges.

The whole tax code should be looked at, all the way from farm subsidies to carried interest to - to corporate loopholes, because we really need to raise more revenue.