Taxation

     "Taxes are merely the cost of government.  Taxes are not too high; government is too big!  ...Ever since the progressive income tax was instituted, the American people have been misled into believing that such a system would "soak the rich" and reduce the tax burden of the poor and the middle class.  It has never worked out that way.  ...The progressive income tax does not reduce the tax burden of those in the lower income tax brackets.  What it does accomplish, however, is to weaken the incentives of the wealthy to risk in new business ventures what money they already have.  ...The progressive income tax is also an obstacle to private capital formation, the building of personal fortunes that could be used to finance new business enterprises.  ...The only way to reduce taxes is to reduce the size and scope of government."

-Ezra Taft Benson

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