# Ronald Reagan — "The free rides are over" > [!quote] "There is one group of losers in our tax plan — those individuals and corporations who are not paying their fair share or, for that matter, any share. These abuses cannot be tolerated. From now on, they shall pay a minimum tax. The free rides are over." > — Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation on Tax Reform, May 28, 1985 ## Context Reagan's prime-time case for the reform that became the Tax Reform Act of 1986 — which closed loopholes, imposed a corporate minimum tax, and removed millions of low-income families from the rolls. In the same address he promised to "close loopholes that benefit a privileged few," and weeks later, campaigning in Atlanta, he made the point unforgettable: it was "crazy," he said, that loopholes "made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary." ## Why this matters The receipt that most directly embarrasses the modern Republican tax program — from its patron saint. Reagan, the architect of rate-cutting, nonetheless insisted that the wealthy and corporations "not paying their fair share" were the "losers" who must finally pay, and framed loophole-closing as a matter of basic fairness. His "millionaire vs. bus driver" formulation is the direct ancestor of the [[Barack Obama - the Buffett Rule]] argument a quarter-century later — which is why Reagan is so often quoted, and so rarely answered, in that debate. Set against today's defense of carried interest and the gutting of the minimum tax, the distance the party has traveled is the whole point of this collection. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Address to the Nation on Tax Reform, May 28, 1985](https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/address-nation-tax-reform-may-1985). The "millionaires pay nothing while a bus driver pays 10 percent" line is from his June 1985 tax-reform remarks in Atlanta, widely reported and preserved on video. - **Status:** Verbatim from the official text. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Jimmy Carter - a welfare program for the rich]] — the predecessor whose loophole critique Reagan adopted. - [[Theodore Roosevelt - a graduated income tax on big fortunes]] — the earlier Republican who tied fairness to the tax code. - [[Barack Obama - the Buffett Rule]] — the line of argument Reagan's "bus driver" framing seeds. - Featured in [[Presidents on Tax Fairness]].