Ron Paul Talks abt Government Spend (40 QUOTES)

* A rational person would argue that failed aid programs should be eliminated. In Washington, however, failed programs get more money thrown at them.
* History shows us that compassionate deficit spending hurts poor people the most, by devaluating the value of the dollar.
* The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration. The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation.
* Every dollar the federal government borrows makes us less secure as a nation, by making America beholden to interests outside our borders.
* Your money has never been safe in the government's hands, and it never will be. Governments spend money; it's just their nature.
* It's particularly galling when members of Congress pledge never to raise taxes, but then vote to increase the debt limit. By doing so, they are voting to raise taxes on future generations pure and simple.
* Congress has become like the drunk who promises to sober up tomorrow, if only he can keep drinking today. Does anyone really believe this will be the last time, that Congress will tighten its belt if granted one last loan? What a joke! There is only one approach to dealing with an incorrigible spendthrift: cut him off.
* The only way to control federal spending is to take away the government's credit card and refuse to allow Congress to borrow one red dime.
* The best private solution, of course, is simply to allow the American people to keep more of their paychecks and invest for retirement as they see fit.
* The federal government has proven itself incapable of good money management, and permitting politicians and bureaucrats to make investment decisions would result in unscrupulous lobbying for venture capital.
* Everybody complains about pork, but members of Congress keep spending because voters do not throw them out of office for doing so. The rotten system in Congress will change only when the American people change their beliefs about the proper role of government in our society.
* Too many members of Congress believe they can solve all economic problems, cure all social ills, and bring about worldwide peace and prosperity simply by creating new federal programs. We must reject unlimited government and reassert the Constitutional rule of law if we hope to halt the spending orgy.
* If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.
* Today's political process is nothing more than a street fight between various groups seeking to vote themselves other people's money.
* Government spending is the problem! Taking a big chunk of the people's earnings out of the economy, whether through taxes or borrowing, is always harmful. The real issue is total spending by government, yet this is ignored or politicized by both sides of the aisle in Congress.
* Not only does government spend far too much of your money, it spends the money badly. Once we as a society accepted the notion that Congress could fund programs not authorized in the Constitution, the sky was the limit- and we've reached that limit today.
* The problem is simple: Congress spends way too much.
* It is time for voters to think about their grandchildren and stop rewarding spendthrift politicians with 97% reelection rates. Debt does matter, and it's cowardly to ask future generations to pay for our extravagance.
* None of the free-market restraints against financial mismanagement apply to government. The federal government doesn’t need to raise money by meeting a market demand or raising investment capital- it simply takes what it wants through taxes, which can be raised at will.
* So why is there not more outrage about government financial accountability? Of course we read the occasional news article lamenting $400 hammers at the Pentagon, but for the most part Congress gets a free pass on its own fiscal mismanagement.
* Congress could clean up its financial mess, but ultimately it is voters who must demand accountability for their tax dollars. Remember that you give government at all levels nearly half of everything you earn. If you invested that much into a private company, don’t you think you would keep a close eye on it and demand accountability as a shareholder? The only thing we know for sure about the federal budget is that it will go up each year unless and until voters remove the politicians who insist on taxing, spending, and borrowing us to death.
* Real homeland security must focus on consolidation of federal agency resources, better intelligence gathering, and elimination of red tape and bureaucratic turf battles that prevent proper sharing of information. Proposals to merely hire thousands of new federal employees and throw money at new agencies- without changing the bureaucratic culture- are doomed to fail.
* Whenever I discuss the issue of foreign aid with my colleagues, I always remind them that in all my years serving in Congress, I’ve never once had a constituent ask me to send more money overseas.
* We should have the courage to face our grandchildren knowing that we have done all we can to end the government spending spree.
* Remember, the private marketplace is always far more efficient that any government program. You know better than the government how to spend your own money, and the same principle applies to the economy as a whole. Spending is spending, even when politicians call it "investing in America" or "stimulus." Government cannot simply spend us into prosperity.
* American voters should understand that Congress will always find a way to spend every last dollar sent to Washington. Remember, politicians get votes by promising everything to everyone, always at the expense of some other invisible taxpayers. Most politicians are unashamed of their unConstitutional pork-barrel spending, even highlighting during campaigns their "accomplishment" of spending more and more of your money.
* The federal government cannot maintain a budget surplus any more than an alcoholic can leave a fresh bottle of whiskey untouched in the cupboard.
* The rise in corruption in Washington simply mirrors the rise in federal spending.
* The single greatest threat to our liberty in America is uncontrolled spending by Congress.
* We hear Congress talk about smaller government, but the size of the federal budget increases each year. Huge amounts of federal spending could be eliminated if Congress adhered to the limited enumerated powers listed in the Constitution.
* we must massively reduce government spending, so that income taxes can be lowered drastically.
* Government spending not only affects our fiscal health as a nation; it also determines the size and scope of government power over our lives.
* We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
* This debt is the result of one very simple but enormous problem: over the years, Congress has spent more than the Treasury has collected in taxes.
* If you subsidize something, you get more of it.
* We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
* When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans. Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.
* Spending, borrowing and printing money cannot be the road to prosperity.
* There's nothing radical about it. To me, the radical idea is over spending, over-borrowing, and then resorting to printing money when you run out of it.
* Don't steal. The government hates competition.