Quotes About Government

Afterwards, when they went around the table discussing the government's 'achievements', Clark's answer was 'that we have really succeeded in putting a lot of people out of work'. There was grim laughter at that, but he was absolutely serious. The unions, he thought, had been 'disciplined by the fear of being put on the dole and this is a considerable, though brutal, achievement'. But apart from that, he could think of nothing else.

Never underestimate the power of the State to act out its own massive fantasies.

People who are in power make their arrangements in secret, largely as a way of maintaining and furthering that power.

De quién es la imagen, e inscripción que tiene? Le responden: De César. 25 Les dijo entonces: Paguen pues a César lo que es de César; y a Dios lo que es de Dios.

What is a left-wing socialist but a Marxist without a gun?

As in 1914, the government mounted an extraordinary campaign to help. Winegrowers were granted delays in being called to active duty, military labor detachments were sent to the vineyards and farm horses of small growers were not to be requisitioned until the harvest was completed.

another policy review sparked by George Bush's "gut instinct

Decried every day as a feckless thing without initiative or ambition, a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath as private enterprise, government became that thing. First sequester its responsibilities, sell off its functions, grant it no respect; run it into the ground and then declare it incompetent.

The U.S. government has in recent years fought what it termed wars against AIDS, drug abuse, poverty, illiteracy and terrorism. Each of these wars has budgets, legislation, offices, officials, letterhead—everything necessary in a bureaucracy to tell you something is real. —Bruce Jackson Keynote address "Media and War" symposium, University of Buffalo November 17–18, 2003

The cartel has bought the White House. We've crossed the border now.

Over my forty-year career as a defense attorney, I regularly came into contact with people who lied, cheated, and tried to bend the system so that they would come out on top. Most of them worked for the government. —OSCAR GOODMAN, BEING OSCAR

When you ask people, "What's America's longest war?" they usually answer "Vietnam" or amend that to "Afghanistan," but it's neither. America's longest war is the war on drugs.

The Great Depression." What better way to control a free society than to take away their ability to buy, save, and grow?

As President Bush has said on numerous occasions, it is the government's role to create the conditions, the friendly environment, that will attract capital.

What worked, GAO found, was strong leadership commitment, investment in the capacity needed to get the job done, careful monitoring of results, and a commitment to stay with the problems until they were solved. Investment in government's capacity, and careful attention to key details, demonstrated that failure is not the only option. But success builds on people power.

government needs more flexibility to identify talent and recruit effectively for the workers with the skills it needs; it needs a pay and benefits system that is competitive with private markets; it needs a talent management system that rewards top performers and deals with poor performers, including increasing flexibility in firing those whose work is substandard. And

She added, "Washington is the city of the soft heads and the chicken hearts.

Ain't no such thing as communist baseball team!

Those who hold power and influence in government either have limited interest in implementation or, in particular in the case of the prime minister and his most senior advisors, cannot find time in their busy agenda to think about implementation. They all too often assume that the machinery of government will do as it is told.

Government is good at generating ideas. In

Citizens expect quick responses to their questions or perspectives, putting enormous pressure on the machinery of government to react quickly and to get it right, which it was hardly designed to do, given its reliance on hierarchy.

27 per cent of Canadians think that Ottawa deals with issues that are important to them.

today influence belongs to a carefully selected handful of partisan advisors and senior deputy ministers.

They fall short on holding the government to account, scrutinizing and authorizing the spending of public money, reviewing and refining legislation, and acting as an effective forum to debate the important issues of the day.