Michael Moore: Americans Pay More Taxes Than French, Most of Europe
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/30/lkl.01.html
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MOORE: You were asking me a serious question. I'm sorry. Actually, you know what
I would do is I would get -- I would try to lower Americans' taxes to the rate
that the French pay. The French pay less taxes than we do, less.

KING: Socialist country?

MOORE: That's right, most of Europe pays less than we do. That's not the way
we're told in this country. We're told, oh, they pay all these horrible taxes;
40 percent of their income goes to income taxes. Actually, the French federal
income tax is around 10 percent. That 10 percent covers everything, the road,
the cops, the military.

What they do is they have these other taxes. Here's your tax for your health
care. Here's your tax for education. Here's your tax -- it's listed on your
payroll stub, where it pays for these things.

KING: What's the total?

MOORE: Hear this out. In France, you have free health care, free college, and
free or near free day care. The average America, if they don't have their health
care covered, it's 12,000 dollars a year out of their pocket. That's a tax. If
they're paying day care, 200 bucks a week, a month, whatever. That's a few
thousands a year. College loans, people are paying their college loans at 40
years old, thousands of dollars in college that you don't pay in France.

If you added up tonight what every American, what you're paying right now out of
your pocket for your college education, for day care, for health care, add that
on to the taxes you pay, you're paying a lot more than what you're paying in
France.

We don't call it a tax in this country. We have other words for it. That's what
we're doing. We're being taxed to death. The French, for all that they riot and
get out in the street and protest and whatever, you never see them out in the
street saying, we pay too many taxes. They never complain about that because
they get something for it. They get to go to a doctor when they're sick. Their
kids get to go to school and college, not have to worry about it. They have help
with their kids if they have kids and have to work.

That's all taken care of. They don't complain about their taxes. We complain
about our taxes because we can't get a pothole fixed.
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