John C. Calhoun Quotes
He is blind indeed who does not see, in the signs of the times, a strong tendency to plunge the Union as deep in debt as are many of the States, and to subjugate the whole to the paper system.
Calhoun, John C. "Speech on the Assumption of State Debts." The Works of John C. Calhoun, edited by Richard K. Crallé, vol. 3, D. Appleton and Company, 1853, p. 415.
The United States has an unusual set of laws with respect to paying the nation’s bills. Congress must vote for the budget which authorizes and triggers the buying and spending. Then when it comes to paying for what has been bought, Congress must vote again to raise the debt ceiling so the national can pay for what Congress has already directed to be bought. Congress, in 2012 and 2013, voted to spend the money and then balked at authorizing the administration to borrow the money to pay the bills.
John Caldwell Calhoun was an American politician and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832, while adamantly defending slavery and protecting the interests of the white South when its residents were outnumbered by Northerners. He began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent of a strong national government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views changed radically, and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs. He saw Northern acceptance of those policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union. His beliefs and warnings heavily influenced the South's secession from the Union in 1860–1861.
