Government Programs Quotes

• The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

  Ronald Reagan

  Funny, Business, Military

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Nine, Helping

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

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• No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Libertarian, Size

  Television broadcast, 27 Oct. 1964

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• Conservatives and liberals are kindred spirits as far as government spending is concerned. First, let's make sure we understand what government spending is. Since government has no resources of its own, and since there's no Tooth Fairy handing Congress the funds for the programs it enacts, we are forced to recognize that government spending is no less than the confiscation of one person's property to give it to another to whom it does not belong - in effect, legalized theft.

  Walter E. Williams

  Government, Giving, Liberty

  "All it takes is guts". Book by Walter E. Williams, 1987.

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• A politician who commends himself as 'caring' and 'sensitive' because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to do good with other peoples' money.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Caring, Government, Liberty

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “The Enemies List”, p.150, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good with his own money - if a gun is held to his head.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Pride, Caring, Gun

  "Why I Am a Conservative". Book by P. J. O'Rourke, 1996.

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• As more people rely on government programs, the harder it becomes to conduct the necessary reforms to preserve them to help our society's most vulnerable.

  Jim DeMint

  Government, People, Reform

  "DeMint Weighs In". Interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez, www.nationalreview.com. January 19, 2012.

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• Where there is a man who does not labor because another is compelled to work for him, there slavery is.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Men, Political, Doe

  graf Leo Tolstoy (1891). “Church and State and Other Essays: Including Money; Man and Woman: Their Respective Functions; The Mother; A Second Supplement to the Kreutzer Sonata”

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• There are two distinct classes of men - those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes.

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Class, Two

  Thomas Paine (1830). “The Political Writings of Thomas Paine ...: Prospects on the Rubicon. Rights of man, part I. Rights of man, part II. Letter to the authors of the Republican. Letter to the Abbe Sieyes. Address to the addressers. Letters to Lord Onslow. Dissertation on the first principles of government. Speech delivered in the French National convention. Letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas. The decline and fall of the English system of finance. Letter to the people of France. Reasons for preserving the life of Louis”, p.281

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• Hard work and education will take you farther than any government program can ever promise.

  Mia Love

  Hard Work, Government, Promise

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• There's a smokestack on the back of every government program.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Program

  "Take It To The Limits: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism". Interview with Peter Robinson on "Uncommon Knowledge", www.youtube.com. February 10, 1999.

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• We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma.

  Chuck Grassley

  Grandma, Government, Program

  "Hardball with Chris Matthews", www.msnbc.com. August 12, 2009.

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• No one got rich on a government program. Do not choose to be a common man. You can be uncommon.

  Dave Ramsey

  Men, Common, Rich

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• No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Political, Voting

  Television broadcast, 27 Oct. 1964

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• Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

  Quoted in Cleveland Plain Dealer, 27 Oct. 1993

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• Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Government, Political

  Thomas Jefferson (1853). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.82

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• The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.

  Lenny Bruce

  Funny, People, Political

  In John Cohen Essential Lenny Bruce (1970) p. 59

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• I often quote Ronald Reagan, who is pretty close to my favorite President ever, I will have to say that, but one of my favorite remarks he ever made was that when you look at Federal programs, there is nothing so close to eternal life on Earth as a Federal Government program.

  Marsha Blackburn

  Government, President, Looks

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• Every government program needs to be more efficient. Instead of pointing out how other programs can tighten their belts, every program administrator must look inward to save money.

  Michael Enzi

  Government, Needs, Inward

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• A properly functioning free market system does not spring spontaneously from society's soil as crabgrass springs from suburban lawns. Rather, it is a complex creation of laws and mores... Capitalism is a government program.

  George Will

  Spring, Government, Law

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• Democratic politicians want to solve the crisis of poor education by taking more of your money and using it to reduce classroom sizes in the government schools. Republican politicians want to solve the crisis by taking more of your money to provide vouchers to a handful of the poorest students in each area, paying for a part of the tuition expense at private schools. But before long this 'reform' would make those private schools indistinguishable from the government schools ... Vouchers are an excellent way for the government to increase control over private schools.

  Harry Browne

  School, Poor Education, Government

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• Liberals want to manage the damage with government programs to take care of those who have fallen between the cracks. Populists want to fix the cracks so that people don't fall in the first place.

  Jim Hightower

  Fall, Government, People

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• Now the proposal is yet again another $150 billion before we start to think about a freeze. But $150 billion spent on more government programs; monies being created to direct and what kind of jobs that Washington thinks ought to be created. Come on. I mean there is a government that can help, and the government can also hurt.

  Eric Cantor

  Hurt, Jobs, Mean

  "POLITICO Interview: Eric Cantor". Interview with Mike Allen, www.politico.com. January 29, 2010.

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• Insurance is meant for extraordinary circumstances. You don't use car insurance to pay for oil changes or gasoline; you have it as protection in case you have a terrible accident or your car is stolen. You don't use homeowners' insurance to pay your electricity and water bills; you have it as protection in case a fire or other catastrophic event produces a large expense. Obviously, any insurance policy that promises to cover every small, ordinary expense is going to be much more expensive than one that covers only extraordinary expenses.

  Harry Browne

  Fire, Oil, Car

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• One more time? We've done this. We've done this at least four times where there's a new government program to help homeowners who have trouble with their mortgages. None of these programs have worked. I don't know why anyone would think that this next idea is going to work. All it does is delay the clearing of the market. As soon as the market clears and we understand where the prices really are - that will be the most important thing we can do in order to improve home values around the country.

  John Boehner

  Country, Home, Thinking

  "John Boehner: Time For Government To Stop Helping Homeowners" by Michael McAuliff, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 1, 2012.

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