At The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler fact-checks Perry's announcement, including his dismay that half of Americans are off the federal income tax rolls. Some quotations suggest who took them many of them off and why:
- "Now, let me point out right here that under our plan, by taking the basic deductions, the average family earning up to $12,000 or any blind or elderly American living at or below the poverty level would be dropped completely from the tax rolls-not one penny of tax to pay." -- President Reagan, May 28, 1985.
- "Indeed, our plan would drop virtually every poor family in America off the tax rolls entirely." -- President Reagan, June 27, 1985.
- "Our proposal will mean that families, as well as the elderly, the blind, and the disabled, living at or below the poverty line will be completely scratched from the Federal income tax rolls. The U.S. Government will no longer tax families into poverty. And under our proposal, a family of four wouldn't have to pay one single cent of Federal income taxes on the first $12,000 of income." -- President Reagan October 29, 1985.
- "Families will get a long overdue tax break, and millions of poor will be dropped from the tax rolls altogether. It's no exaggeration when I call tax reform simultaneously the best jobs creation bill, the best antipoverty legislation, and the best profamily legislation the U.S. Congress has ever produced." -- President Reagan, November 15, 1986
- "Under Republican leadership, tax reform removed 6 million low-income people from the income tax rolls and brought financial relief to tens of millions more." 1988 Republican Platform
- "With tax relief, overtime will no longer be over-taxed-time for the waitress. People with the smallest incomes will get the highest percentage of reductions. And millions of additional American families will be removed from the income tax rolls entirely." --President George W. Bush, February 27, 2001
- "If you pay taxes, you deserve relief. Three million people are now off the tax rolls; 3.9 million households received tax relief." -- President George W. Bush, September 1, 2003.
