Maria Cantwell Quotes

My slogan when I ran was that there is no such thing as government money, there is only taxpayer's money, and that cut pretty deep.

I've never understood the allure of putting your name on a building that was built with taxpayers' money.

While I can see how the government has, at times, wasted taxpayers' money, and I can admit that too often its programs are ineffective, I also can see the good that government does.

Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned; it was - by a taxpayer.

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

Tell me why the limousine fleet has increased by 42 percent since Barack Obama took office. Why are we spending taxpayers' money on that? Limos should be for weddings and proms, certainly not for government officials to be riding around in.

We are not spending the Federal Government's money, we are spending the taxpayer's money, and it must be spent n a way which guarantees his money's worth and yields the fullest possible benefit to the people being helped.

Every time we spend a federal dollar, what we're doing is we're pulling money out of somebody's pocket, and we're giving it to somebody else.

I believe - we all pay taxes. I'm happy to pay it, but I hate to have it abused, money wasted, no accountability. That's going to bother you.

If you can take my tax money and assure me that it'll go to the right purpose, that it will help the poor, then fine. But I'm not sure a lot of it does. In fact, I know a lot of it doesn't.

I heard someone in opposition to reform last night criticize the president for saying it's their money. They said it's not their money; it's my mother's money. Well that's what's wrong with the system.

As Americans, we realize that there is no taxpayer money that wasn't first earned through the sweat and toil of one of our citizens.

It's wrong that members of Congress can purchase luxury airfare with taxpayer money when many families in my district and across the county are struggling to make ends meet.

The politicians in Washington are spending trillions of dollars of our money. When are Americans going to stand up and say enough is enough?

If you think that my job is to rob the Federal Treasury on your behalf, you have voted for the wrong man

Staff expands to fill the office space available.... The basic obligation of Congress is to the tax payers, not to its own creature comforts.

I know why elected officials want to spend money. It’s great. I can get a vote from you if I give you some money. OK but that doesn’t help your children. It just helps you.

Congress is not an ATM

President Barack Obama talks about the need to 'invest' in alternative energy sources. But the reality is that he is not investing his money - he's spending yours.

In many cases, here we are, putting out reports that we're spending $100 million a year on, and we're telling the public, 'Oh, you don't have access to them.'

I came to Congress on the promise of cutting wasteful government spending. There are plenty of examples of the government playing loose with taxpayer money, but none more so than how we spend our foreign aid dollars.

Every penny we spend comes from the taxpayer. We thus owe it to the taxpayer to work as hard managing that money wisely as the taxpayer must do to earn it in the first place.

The money that government spends is your money, not government's, and you know how to spend it better.

Washington Democrats see the IRS' overextended resources and automatically think the answer is to take and spend more of your tax dollars. I disagree.

With each new appropriations bill Congress considers, I have to ask myself, 'Is this a good way to spend taxpayer dollars?'