Quotes About Policy

I came into American politics and into this political system proud of politics and the way we make decisions.

I don't think that much change comes from economists. I think it comes more from political realities. Probably the two giants of the 20th century, who actually did shift government policy in the U.S. and around the world, were John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. I don't see anybody in our system who is at that level of influence.

Rain harvesting should be made mandatory and should be made more systematic to ensure that every drop of rain is preserved.

There's been a deliberate and systematic effort to convey to countries around the world, friends and foes, that if they cross the United States there's a price to pay.

From a systematic standpoint, I think that capitalism is the best system. I can spend a lot of time explaining why I like communism, but it is actually not a good solution. Nor is socialism. So, capitalism is the right model.

It is not my belief that we need greater government regulation of hedge funds with respect to the systemic risk they create.

Social policy that is coercive is the beginning of a police state.

The adult author finds that by inadvertently violating the school's alcohol policy, she breaks down some part of the barrier between her and the younger students who are subject to more rules.

However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of parliaments and elections alone.

Government has every incentive to ration care for the sick and lavish attention on the healthy.

Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.

We all should know what the Right's agenda is here: privatize education, kill public schools, and transfer the teaching of the young to private entities.

The US Treasury is simply not a church building fund.

Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $45 billion a year in health care, education, and incarceration expenses.

Capitalism is not a synonym for free markets.

From 1836, down to last year, there is no proof of the Government having any confidence in the duration of peace, or possessing increased security against war.

You see, that's the whole point of being in government. If you don't like something you simply make up a law that makes it illegal.

To cut 1930s jobless, FDR taxed corps and rich. Govt used money to hire many millions. Worked then; would now again. Why no debate on that?

Our leaders keep saying phrases like, "Let the market decide." or "The market will get to the efficient outcome." Really? The market is a very flawed institution that does not deserve the nearly religious kind of endorsement of it that our leaders are eager to provide over and over again.

Socialism is when the government does stuff. And it's more socialism the more stuff it does. And if it does a real lot of stuff, it's communism.

I am even going to go as far as to say that the argument that harming the environment is a necessary or effective way to help the unemployed isn't even an economic argument, it's just complete bullshit.

Power I defined as personal influence of an effective sort on governmental action.

The sense that just about anything goes with the collection of public revenues and the making of public expenditure has contributed mightily to the current malaise.

Securing, not prohibiting, the orderly transfer of wealth from A to B, based on wealth differentials, is the raison d'être of the [New Deal programs]. The contrast between the modern progressive and classical liberal agendas could not be more explicit.