Government Spending Quotes

• Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I've never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I've never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity.

  Arthur Laffer

  Government, Looks, Taxation

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• The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.

  Thomas Sowell

  Real, Government, Goal

  Interview with John Hawkins, rightwingnews.com. February 8, 2012.

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• Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

  Ronald Reagan

  Freedom, Military, Moving

  Remarks to state chairs of National White House Conference on Small Business, 15 Aug. 1986

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• The greatest danger facing our nation isn't terrorism, global warming or the energy crisis. It is out-of-control, unbridled government spending.

  R. Lee Wrights

  Government, Energy, Global Warming

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• It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Government, Effort, Sloth

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.36, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

  James Madison

  Government, Liberty, Politics

  "Time Magazine: We Don't Need No Stinking Constitution" by Larry Elder, www.realclearpolitics.com. July 7, 2011.

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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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• We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Government, Civilization, America

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• When they call the slightest spending reductions 'painful', we will say 'If government spending prevents pain, why are we suffering so much of it?' And 'If you want to experience real pain, just stay on the track we are on.'

  Mitch Daniels

  Pain, Real, Government

  Keynote Speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee, delivered 11 February 2011, Ronald Reagan Centennial Dinner, Washington, D.C.

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• The difference between them and us is that we want to check government spending and they want to spend government checks.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Differences, Political

  Ronald Reagan, Bill Adler (1981). “The Reagan wit”, Jameson Books

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• First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

  Carl Sagan

  Two, Government, Firsts

  "Fictional character: S.R. Hadden". "Contact", www.imdb.com. 1997.

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• Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25 percent for domestic government agencies - an 84 percent increase when you include the failed stimulus. All of this new government spending was sold as 'investment.'

  Paul Ryan

  Agency, Government, Law

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• The same undisciplined government spending and social engineering that has undermined our economy over the past 30 years has also been tearing at the social fabric of this land.

  Stockwell Day

  Past, Government, Engineering

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• Increased government spending can provide a temporary stimulus to demand and output but in the longer run higher levels of government spending crowd out private investment or require higher taxes that weaken growth by reducing incentives to save, invest, innovate, and work.

  Martin Feldstein

  Running, Government, Growth

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• I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

  Milton Friedman

  Cutting, Liberty, Taxation

  "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause". Book by Richard A. Viguerie, 2006.

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• [T]he more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer . . . [taking] away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence of somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health for support in age and sickness.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Eye, Government, Giving

  Benjamin Franklin (1835). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin”, p.221

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• I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.

  James Madison

  Regret, Government, Evil

  James Madison (1904). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790”

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• Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem.

  Ronald Reagan

  Freedom, Government, Problem

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• For more than forty years, the United States Congress has shamelessly used payroll taxes intended for Social Security to fund big government spending.

  Mike Pence

  Pregnancy, Government, Years

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

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• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Children, Military

  Speech in Washington, 16 Apr. 1953, in Public Papers of Presidents 1953 (1960) p. 182

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• Lower taxes, less government spending on domestic programs and fewer regulations mean a better economy for everybody.

  Larry Elder

  Mean, Government, Regulation

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• After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money that we don't have. But instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt. It was unlike anything we've ever seen before in the history of the country.

  Michele Bachmann

  Country, Cutting, Government

  Michele Bachmann's response to State of the Union, www.cnn.com. January 26, 2011.

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• I do not intend to dispute in any way the need for defence cuts and the need for government spending cuts in general. I do not share a not in my backyard approach to government spending reductions.

  Stephen Harper

  Cutting, Government, Backyards

  Debates (Hansard) No. 173 - House of Commons of Canada, www.ourcommons.ca. March 23, 1995.

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• Government spending is being restrained, the economy is making progress and moving forward, and the pro-growth, tax cutting policies put in place have allowed businesses to grow, which has brought in additional tax revenue to help pay off the debt.

  Bill Shuster

  Moving, Cutting, Government

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• If you look at the studies coming out of the Congressional Budget Office, the number one thing that's going to blow a hole in the deficit as we go forward 20, 30 years is government spending on healthcare.

  Christina Romer

  Blow, Government, Years

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