Quotes About Government

Think of what would happen to us in America if there were no humorists; life would be one long Congressional Record

The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

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!

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

In my adolescence, when I believed exactly what I was told, doubtless, on hearing the German Government protest its good faith, I should have been inclined to believe it, but now for a long time I had realised that our thoughts do not always correspond with our words.

In so many people there are different strata which are not alike (there were in her her father's character, and her mother's); we traverse first one, then the other. But, next day, their order is reversed. And finally we do not know who is going to allot the parts, to whom we are to appeal for a hearing. Gilberte was like one of those countries with which we dare not form an alliance because of their too frequent changes of government.

Thomas Jefferson famously said: "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god." In other words, government has no business interfering with our beliefs, but legitimately protects us from each other.

Likewise, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries lost its bid to avoid sales taxes,4 Native American believers had no right to direct how the federal government develops federal land,5 Jewish merchants could not force the weekly day of no retail sales to coincide with their Sabbath,6 and a Native American family could not refuse to obtain a Social Security number for their 2-year-old daughter as a precondition to getting federal welfare.

The federal government is partly at fault for the many state exemptions permitting the medical neglect of children. From 1974 to 1983, the states were required to enact such exemptions to qualify for federal funding related to children.109 This federal law was the result of Christian Scientists in positions of power in the Nixon Administration.

Third, the Court has never applied the "least restrictive means" test in a First Amendment free exercise case. RFRA and its progeny do not restore anything, but rather concoct a new, extreme standard (the burden of showing a compelling interest and the least restrictive means) against the government when it defends neutral, generally applicable laws.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists, the Court stated that the First Amendment requires "'that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions.'" Thus, "Congress was deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order.

Under the RFRA of 1993, a religious believer could ignore every law in the country unless it served a "compelling interest," which is a state interest of surpassing importance, and the law served that end in the "least restrictive" way for this one religious believer. In layman's terms, believers could build a moat around their particular religious beliefs that would deny access to the law.

Three legal regimes make it possible for religious entities to run child-care centers without having to abide by the usual state licensing requirements. First, some states have exempted religious child-care centers from their licensing system altogether. For example, Missouri exempts "[a]ny child-care facility maintained or operated under the exclusive control of a religious organization[,]" so long as the facility receives no state or federal funding.

Let's stop big government energy mandates like cap-and-trade, and instead trust the American innovator to make us energy independent.

Under this president, we have a government that has grown too big, too costly and now even more overbearing by forcing religious entities to abandon their beliefs.

We can not continue to allow this over reliance on government to replace the cornerstone institution that has made the American experience possible.

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.

The problem is that when government controls the economy, those who can influence government keep winning, and everybody else just stays the same.

Leaders at the highest levels of our government are undertaking a deliberate and systematic effort to redefine our government, our economy and our country.

We need transparency in government spending. We need to put each government expenditure online so every Floridian can see where their tax money is being spent.

Americans chose a limited government that exists to protect our rights, not to grant them.

We chose more freedom instead of more government. We chose the principles of our founding to solve the challenges of our time. We chose a special man to lead us in a special time. We chose Mitt Romney to lead our nation.

For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for.