Les Aspin Quotes

It is time for us to insist that we are accountable for the money that we are spending.

In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions? Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger? Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multibillion pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven't worked?

We design our own programmes; we take leadership. Of course the donors come in to support us, to complement our efforts. Our responsibility to the donors is about accountability: about how we use that money. If somebody gives you his money, definitely he will be interested in knowing how you spend the money.

I firmly believe that the most important feature of spending the people's money is complete transparency.

We need earmark reform, and when I'm President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.

The American people need to know that money is being used effectively because frankly, the nation can't afford careless spending, no matter how well-intentioned.

It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government economically administered.

Under no circumstances will I allow expenditures upon works not clearly national.

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of public moneys.

For too long it was assumed that you could completely separate out flows of money from responsibilities and accountabilities in service delivery. This flawed assumption is central to understanding many of the failures.

I'm gonna watch the taxpayers' money like I was elected to do.

Who's going to do a better job of spending your money? You or the government?

Resources are a trust of the nation, and each and every penny is being spent on public welfare projects honestly.

On the Sandy bill, I did the best I could on waste, fraud and abuse, and then when the final bill comes, you don't say, 'Hell, no' because you didn't get everything you want in there.

When we're talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, "trust me" just isn't good enough.

The Appropriations Committee in the Senate is out of control, out of control on spending.

The National Intelligence Director needs the authority to do the job we are asking him to do. That means power over the intelligence budget. And to be effective, to be allowed to do his or her job, they must have authority over the budget.

The 9/11 Commission strongly recommends that the National Intelligence Director be fully in control of the budget, from developing it to implementing it, to ensuring that the National Intelligence Director has the clout to make decisions.

I believe the only measure of government response shouldn't be how much we spend on a situation, but rather how well we spend.

The perverse presumption that places the burden of proof on the challenger of spending must be inverted, back to the rule that applies elsewhere in life: 'Prove to me why we should.'

The taxpayers deserve accountability.

We in Scotland need fiscal responsibility. Quite simply, we need to be responsible for what we raise in tax and what we spend in tax.

If we are to attract private investment, if we are to be able to make the legislature feel the moneys from taxpayers are being used properly, we must be ever vigilant of the duty to efficiently use all funds we receive.

Putting together a sustainable budget requires that we all work together, that we focus our scarce resources on key priorities, and that we strengthen our capacity to deliver the best product we can for the American people. And that takes money.

My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have been already submitted to you.