As they see it.

• Position: Quotes from politicians, government officials and organization executives

"It's a strange thing. The sales tax is without question a regressive tax that hurts the poor. But every income group prefers it to other taxes."

--Indiana Senator Lindel Hume, to USA Today, about the popularity of the sales tax.

"Let's forget the nonsense about trying to help everyone. The communists tried it, and it didn't work."

--Former Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel, to the Philadelphia Inquirer, about his proposal to use casino money to eliminate school taxes on the elderly.

"What are we supposed to do? Shut down every school?"

--Guadalupe Paramo. director of high schools in the gang-infested neighborhoods of East Los Angeles, to The New York Times, about federal regulations in the No Child Left Behind Act that require drastic measures for failing schools.

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"The notion that the government should be telling me what I can and cannot drink is absurd."

--Danny Kiln of Free the Hops to the Associated Press about his group's efforts to allow more specialty beers to be sold in Alabama. The state is one of only three in the country to restrict beer to 6 percent alcohol by volume and the only one to limit beer containers to no more than one pint.

"My human body is a financial black hole into which you can pour endless resources. It has become an economic crisis that is crowding out everything we have to do as a society."

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