# Progressive taxation > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Progressive taxation," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/progressive-taxation/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's argument that the United States abandoned a system it was once proud of: taxation based, in Theodore Roosevelt's formulation, on a person's ability to pay. It fell apart under Ronald Reagan, he says, and the regressive substitutes now proposed — a higher gas tax among them — hit the people least able to absorb them.* - **The principle Kiriakou invokes:** Theodore Roosevelt — a person's tax should be based on his ability to pay - **When he says it collapsed:** Under Ronald Reagan, 'and it's gotten worse and worse and worse' - **What he wants:** A tax on the very rich — 'we know that it won't hurt them; they won't even notice it' - **What he opposes:** Regressive taxes such as an increased gas tax - **The era he would return to on rates:** The 1950s, with balanced budgets and a top rate near 90 per cent Told in October 2021 that the infrastructure and reconciliation packages would die if a single cent had to come out of the 2017 tax cuts, and that the fallback under discussion was an increased gas tax that would soak the average person, John Kiriakou did not dispute the prediction. He answered it with a principle. ## Ability to pay Theodore Roosevelt said, he began, that a person's tax should be based on his ability to pay. We used to talk about progressive taxation in this country; we used to be proud, for many years, of the progressive taxation system we had. It fell apart under Ronald Reagan, and it has got worse and worse and worse. [1] We need a tax on the very rich, he says. We know that it won't hurt them; they won't even notice it. But these regressive taxes, like increasing the gas tax, hurt the people who are the least able to withstand the hit. [1] [2] ## Going back to the 1950s Kiriakou then turned a familiar conservative slogan around. The Republicans always say we need to go back to the 1950s, to the good old days when everything was great and everybody was getting along. All right, he says — you know what, on taxation, let's go back to the 1950s, when there was a top rate of ninety per cent or whatever it was, because then we had balanced budgets, and people could work and save and buy a house and do better than their parents did, and provide for their children, and have their children go to college. [2] [3] With these regressive taxes, he concludes, we have put ourselves in a position where we have just screwed ourselves and the next generation. [3] ## The spending side His complaint about revenue is inseparable from his complaint about outlays. In the same conversation he invoked [William Proxmire](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/william-proxmire) — a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin who took Joe McCarthy's seat and gave out an award for the worst waste in government, usually to the Defense Department, which was always trying to inflate its budget or hide the covert budget inside its own. What makes Proxmire worth remembering now, Kiriakou says, is that if he had an objection to government spending, it was to all government spending. [4] [5] He applied that standard to Joe Manchin's objection to a $1.5 trillion package: we are happy to spend a trillion dollars on defence, and more than the next eight largest countries combined — where was he when the defence budget passed? [6] ## See also - [William Proxmire](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/william-proxmire) - [Trumpcare Confusion](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/trumpcare-confusion) - [Wealth concentration](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/wealth-concentration) - [Permanent wartime economy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/permanent-wartime-economy) - [Trump tariffs](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/trump-tariffs) - [The Speaker's office as gatekeeper](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/speakers-office-gatekeeping) ## Sources 1. Talk About the US Congress (2021-10-02), at 31:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwjOYQzyoXA&t=1910s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-02-garland-nixon-talk-about-the-us-congress/ 2. Talk About the US Congress (2021-10-02), at 32:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwjOYQzyoXA&t=1940s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-02-garland-nixon-talk-about-the-us-congress/ 3. Talk About the US Congress (2021-10-02), at 32:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwjOYQzyoXA&t=1973s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-02-garland-nixon-talk-about-the-us-congress/ 4. Talk About the US Congress (2021-10-02), at 06:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwjOYQzyoXA&t=386s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-02-garland-nixon-talk-about-the-us-congress/ 5. Talk About the US Congress (2021-10-02), at 06:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwjOYQzyoXA&t=417s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-02-garland-nixon-talk-about-the-us-congress/ 6. Talk About the US Congress (2021-10-02), at 07:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwjOYQzyoXA&t=447s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-02-garland-nixon-talk-about-the-us-congress/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/progressive-taxation/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt