Quotes About Government

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.

When you look at how much we spend on social programs in our country, it separates us from a lot of countries. In our country, if you're hungry, we'll feed you. If you're homeless, we'll house you. If you're too poor to be sick, we'll pay for your doctor. But all of that comes at a cost.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.

Of what use are all the codes in the world, if by means of confidential reports, if for trifling reasons, if through anonymous traitors any honest citizen may be exiled or banished without a hearing, without a trial?

We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again.

This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it's all checks and no balances.

Every pound that comes into the Exchequer was earned by someone through hard work, and could have been used for a new car, a holiday or a treat for the children. It means I have a responsibility to make sure that all public spending is justified.

I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more.

FDR's New Deal and, after it, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower's similar Middle Way, used the government to regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, and promote infrastructure, like roads and bridges.

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.

Vox populi vox dei: the voice of the people is the voice of God. The slogan was useful for those who first attempted to substitute the people for God as the source of political authority. Their attempt was ultimately so successful that God no longer seems to be needed in government.

Good analysis is very useful when you want to convert a political decision into an investment. It can also go the other way and drive policy.

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.

Useful as a war against France, undertaken by the Government against the will of the people would be for our revolutionary development, just so dangerous must be the effect upon our democratic development of a war supported by blind popular enthusiasm.

I think it's important that we eliminate regulations that are not serving a useful purpose.

There's a big difference between the role of an academic and the role of someone in government. That's a cliche, but in academic life if you say things that are common sense and people nod their heads, it's not very useful. You're not adding anything.

I think politics often seems remote, and anything we can do to show more of the workings - how you make the sausage - is useful.

The links have to be between universities, R&D institutes, and industry. If these linkages are in place, it will result in products that are useful for society. The government has to leverage the money it spends on R&D to help develop new products useful for industry.

All these stories are grist to the mill of the government because they build up a very useful war psychosis.

A constitution, in the American sense of the word, is a written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are established, limited, and defined, and by which these powers are distributed among several departments, for their more safe and useful exercise, for the benefit of the body politic.

If the government can manage to collect and release personal information in a secure and useful way, so can private companies, which will empower consumers to become better shoppers.

It was of limited usefulness to head great rallies. The government did not listen, and, soon enough, the tear gas and the muzzles of the guns were turned against the people. The justice of our cries went unrecognized.