Fox News Sunday interviews during 2015: on Tax Reform

Donald Trump: Repeal estate tax; it's double taxation

TRUMP: Well, the thinking is we have the highest tax rate in the world. We have $2.5 trillion overseas that isn't coming back into this country. So what I'm doing is large tax cuts, especially for the middle class. We're going to have a dynamic economy.

Q: But there are two concerns. The Conservative Tax Foundation, says that over 10 years, you would add $10 trillion to the deficit. And there's also the question of who would benefit under your tax plan. The Foundation says the middle class would see after tax income increase 7.2%. The top 1% would see a spike of 21.6%. So between that and ending the estate tax, the Trump family and folks like you would make out great.

TRUMP: The estate tax has been a disaster; it's double taxation.

Jeb Bush: Reduce corporate tax rate to stimulate growth

BUSH: The thinking is we need to create high, sustained economic growth to lift people out of poverty and to give people a pay raise for the first time in a long while. So reducing the corporate tax rate and fully expensing capital investment will create investment in our own country, on Main Street, in the real economy, and that's what we need to be focused on.

Jeb Bush: Tax plan disproportionately benefits middle class, not rich

BUSH: Look, the benefit of this goes disproportionately to the middle class. If you look at what the middle class pays today compared to what they would pay in our tax plan because higher income people pay more taxes right now and proportionally, everybody will get a benefit. But proportionally, they'll pay more in with my plan than what they pay today.

Q: Well, I mean forgive me, sir, but 2.9% seems like it's less than 11.6%

BUSH: The simple fact is 1% of people pay 40% of all the taxes. And so, of course, tax cuts for everybody is going to generate more for people that are paying a lot more. I mean that's just the way it is.

Jeb Bush: Cutting taxes decreases the deficit dynamically

A: They didn't as greatly as the static thinkers on the left think. They created a dynamic effect of high growth and that's what we need.If we think that if people think 2% growth is OK, then we'll have more people living in poverty and disposable income for the middle class will continue to decline. We have to jump-start the economy so that people can have more money to make decisions for themselves

Ben Carson: Flat tax of 10%-15% is fairest option, even for low-income

A: I want things to be fair for everybody. When you do things on a proportional basis, it works very well. 10% is an easy number to use because it's easy to do the calculations. But you know, you make $10 billion, you pay a billion. Now there are a lot of people that say that's a problem because the guy still has got $9 billion left and we need to take more of his money. But that's called socialism. But the problem with socialism is that it ends up looking the same, with a small group of elite at the top, and a rapidly diminishing middle class and a vastly expanded dependent class. That's not America.

Q: So include low earners as taxpayers?

A: When you have a tax system that includes everybody, it's very difficult for the politicians to engage in raising taxes.

Ben Carson: Concentrate on incentivizing entrepreneurial risk taking

CARSON: What we have to think about is, "How do we fix the economy so that it encourages entrepreneurial risk taking and capital investment? How do we create a ladder that allows those people in the lower income brackets to move up that ladder?" That's what we need to be concentrating on. Not how do we make them comfortable in that situation. That's not what America was all about. And we can do that.

Ben Carson: Regulations increase the cost of living

CARSON: I say the thing that is really impacting that person making $30,000 or $40,000 is all of the regulations that we're coming up with. Every single regulation costs us in terms of goods and services. It increases the price of everything. Who gets hit by that the most? The people in the lower economic brackets. That's what we need to be concentrating on. Those are things that are driving income gap

Carly Fiorina: Simplify tax code; lower every tax rate; close loopholes

FIORINA: So we have a 75,000 page tax code today. And that complexity favors the wealthy and the big and the well-connected because they can hire the accountants and the lawyers and lobbyists to figure out how to make all that complexity work for them. My blueprint: lower every rate, close every loophole. Maybe there's one or two loopholes that really help the middle class, but most of these deductions and loopholes and complexities actually benefit the wealthy, the powerful, the well connected. Our tax code isn't competitive anymore. It's ridiculous to have the highest tax rate in the world when we're trying to attract jobs here.

Rand Paul: Flat tax 14.5% on personal income; & 14.5% value added tax

PAUL: We have to look at everything across the board and all of government needs to be smaller. I have put forward three five-year plans that balance the budget over five years, including significant tax cuts. If you want a Republican that's going to keep government the same size by having revenue neutral tax and not really cutting tax, I'm not the guy. The Tax Foundation said that my plan would create millions of jobs and that mine is the most pro-growth tax plan ever presented. [My tax plan] helps the poor and the working class because my tax plan gets rid of the payroll tax. Social Security will be paid for by businesses and not by individuals, so a guy making $40,000 a year will get $2,000 more in their check every year.

Rand Paul: Flat tax doesn't exacerbate income inequality

PAUL: Income inequality is due to some people working harder and selling more things. If people voluntarily buy more of your stuff, you'll have more money. And it is a fallacious notion to say that rich people get more money back in a tax cut. If you cut taxes by 10%, 10% of $1 million is more than 10% of $1,000 so obviously people who paid more in taxes will get more back.

Mike Huckabee: Bottom 1/3 of economy benefits most from the FairTax

A: They have it exactly wrong. In fact, it's the bottom third of the economy who benefit the most from the FairTax. The people of the top third of the economy benefit the least, although everybody benefits some. That tax study is one that has been discredited by the people who spend over $20 million, very thorough, thoughtful economic study developing the fair tax. The difference is that the FairTaxhas what's called the pre-bate, which untaxes people for their necessities. So, if you're at the bottom 1/3, chances are you really don't pay any effective tax whatsoever in the consumption tax because you are consuming less & you're getting a pre-bate, which is a rebate in advance for that what you would have spent

Ben Carson: Proposes a flat tax between 10 and 15 percent

CARSON: I like the idea of a proportional tax. That way you pay according to your ability. And I got that idea from the Bible, tithing. You make $10 billion a year, you pay $1 billion. You make $10 a year, you pay $1. And also, if everybody is paying, it makes it very difficult for these politicians to come along and raise taxes. It's easy to raise it on 1 percent or 2 percent or 5 percent. It's very difficult to raise it on 100 percent.

CARSON: Wrong.

Q: Low and middle- income families would get a big tax hike, while wealthy families would actually get a tax cut.

CARSON: I don't agree with that assessment, let me put it that way, because I've been in contact with many economists. And, in fact, if you eliminate loopholes and deductions, then you're really talking about a rate somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent.

Lindsey Graham: Supports closing loopholes, means-testing higher income

GRAHAM: I'm for Simpson-Bowles. It doesn't raise taxes, it closes loopholes and takes the money we would give to a few people and put it on the debt. We're $18 trillion in debt, 80 million baby boomers are going to retire in the next 20 to 30 years. We're going to wipe out Social Security and Medicare. We have to adjust the retirement age for younger people. People of my income level are going to have to have their benefits means-tested. Democrats are going to want a simpler tax code.

Q: What about that $18 trillion in debt?

GRAHAM: I'm for eliminating deductions and taking some of the money to buy down rates and put it on the debt. That's not raising taxes. That's solving a problem.