Sheldon Adelson Quotes
Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?
Adelson, Sheldon. "I Didn't Leave the Democrats. They Left Me." The Wall Street Journal, 4 Nov. 2012.
This became known as the Buffet Principle—that the very rich should not pay a lower tax rate than the workers who make far less money than they do. President Barack Obama used this principle by name in calling for the 2011 Jobs Act which would eliminate some of the loopholes and exemptions by which the rich could avoid some or much or their tax obligation.
Throughout most of the world, the rich and the aristocrats have been able to reduce or eliminate their tax obligations with the burden falling more heavily on the common people. Progressive taxation was thought to be a solution, but even in the United States by the 21st century many huge corporations paid little or no taxes while there was a heavy tax burden on small companies. Rich people generally paid a smaller percentage of their income than middle class people.
The founder was Charles E. Coughlin, 1891-1979, a demagogic Catholic Priest who drafted the principles and invited others to join him. Hundreds of thousands did in this organization which began in idealism, and ended in scandal and hate mongering, so much so that Father Coughlin was ordered off the radio and out of politics by the Catholic Church. The National Union in 1936 had morphed into the Union Party which ran Presidential candidates in the 1936 election. At the time, a progressive income tax was an anathema to most people, however it became the norm in later years and although the idea did not originate with the Union, was one of the few lasting contributions of the Union.
An income tax had been instituted during the Civil War but had lapsed. Existing taxes were therefore all excise or head taxes—very regressive. Some politicians began floating the idea of bringing back the Income Tax. But the New York Congressmen objected on the grounds that New York would pay a much higher proportion of the taxes, then their population represented. Under the Civil War, income tax, New York State had paid one/third of the entire national tax burden.
As a result of years of lobbying many vested interests were getting tax exemptions for their activities. Some of the richest corporations and people paid little or no taxes. This was like the old European monarchies where the dukes and nobles got tax exemptions from the king and the middle class and poor people paid a much larger percentage of their income and wealth than did the nobility. Fairness in taxation is very difficult in practice. See {633629}
At the time, he, th richest man in America was paying a lower ta rate than his secretary, his employees and the waiter who served him lunch. The “Buffet Rule” was developed and named for him that said that wealthy people should pay a minimum rate of taxation regardless of tax credits, deductions and other means of tax avoidance.
Comment made in the Congressional Congress debates in 1787. This precedes individual taxation. In the debate, Wilson felt state taxation “should accord with the number of freemen” as “it is strange that annexing the name of ‘State’ to ten thousand men, should give them an equal right with forty thousand.”
whether or not to buy luxuries This quotation and {639885} together illustrate why it is so difficult to classify historical politicians in the left-right categories of a future time. Here Gogel seems a strong liberal arguing for progressive taxation and luxury taxes, and tax relief for the poop, while in {639885} he sounds like a 21st century extreme conservative.
Sheldon Gary Adelson was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
