Ludwig von Mises Quotes

The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.

To Republicans, I humbly suggest that we make it possible for Democrats to give up their quest for redistribution of income and wealth by our acceptance of an appropriate role for government in financing those public goods and services necessary to secure a social safety net below which no American would be allowed to fall.

Government can’t deliver a free lunch to the country as a whole. It can, however, determine who pays for lunch.

There isn’t that much that Washington can do to effect the economy.

The theory of government I was taught says that government provides benefits, primarily security, to the entire population. In return we pay taxes. But lately the government has been a distributor of special privileges, taking money from some and giving it to others. America is now about evenly split between those who pay income taxes and those who consume them.

President Obama wants to increase the size of government and raise taxes, while I support less government and more individual freedom.

Spreading the wealth punishes success while setting America on course for a greater dependency on government.

For those of you who don't understand Reaganomics, it's based on the principle that the rich and the poor will get the same amount of ice. In Reaganomics, however, the poor get all of theirs in winter.

Obama's plan for higher taxes and more spending is a blueprint for perpetual poverty. The last thing America needs is more of the Democrats' class warfare that has left our economy a barren landscape.

In fact, it works the other way: A government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class and those who hope to join it.

We now consider as fundamental economic functions of the state, many duties that were left a generation ago to chance.

All's the government should do is keep the taxes and regulations at a manageable rate, keep a decent standing army and get out of the way.

I mean, the Obama position has been, 'We think government ought to be spending this money, not the people who earn it.'

There's no conflict between the social-welfare state and open markets.

I am not someone who tends to advocate for increased government involvement in the private sector.

Liberals believe government should take people's earnings to give to poor people. Conservatives disagree. They think government should confiscate people's earnings and give them to farmers and insolvent banks.

When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money.

I'm offended by any suggestion that we have to beat groups of people over the head with an economic club [higher taxes] to keep them from exercising their freedom of choice in the marketplace.

Bribing rich people to help poor people, rather than helping poor people directly, is a popular approach because the cost of tax breaks doesn't show up on the government books.

Now we’re going to get big government.

Governments have nothing. They can't create anything, they never have. All they can do is steal from one group and give it to another

A national debt is the price of liberty.

Since the 1980s, Republicans have argued that policies embraced by a majority of Americans to promote equality of opportunity actually infringe liberty by hampering businessmen's actions or taking their money through taxes.

Politics is involved when you don't tackle inefficiency and burden people with higher tariffs.

There is no evidence that government under Republicans will shrink. It's simply a question of what the government will do and who will benefit.