Quotes About Oversight

The government does a lot of stuff that it shouldn't do - the Department of Education, for instance.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

One of the things the government can't do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt.

We must have government, but we must watch them like a hawk.

Why has it seemed that the only way to protect the environment is with heavy-handed government regulation?

I don't think the government should be in the trailer-park business. I don't think they know how to run a trailer park.

Question Period is not part of the legislative process,and has nothing to do with it. It is a means of monitoring the Executive that the Government cannot evade.

The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity.

Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

The whole human rights structure is based on the accountability of governments.

It's important to make sure that governments have some checks on what they do, that people can oversee what's being done so the government doesn't abuse it.

Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.

No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.

Our whole system of government is based on "We the people," but if we the people don't pay attention to what's going on, we have no right to bellyache or squawk when things go wrong.

The guiding purpose of the government regulator is to prevent rather than to create something.

When those who are governed do too little, those who govern can - and often will - do too much.

A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.

Micro managing anything is not a great role for government.

It is not a government's obligation to provide services, but to see that they are provided.

What we are missing, utterly and completely, in this government is accountability.

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.