Pat Paulsen Quotes

Did somebody dream there is some way that the government doesn't need us?

You shouldn't get to live in society and give nothing back. People complain about their taxes, yet they do nothing for the community. That makes me furious.

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.

What I want to understand is what I am talking about on the stage. What I don't want to understand is what the government is talking about when the government tells me about taxes.

My task as a citizen is to get the government to do more good and less inefficient and wasteful work.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Of course we should have only the government we need. But we must insist on all the government we need.

Do you work for the government, any government?” "I pay taxes, which means I work for the government, part of the time. Yes.

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

I'll remind you all, however, that for government, existence is a privilege, not a right.

I think we need politicians; we need people who want to serve.

The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us.

I believe we need to attract a new generation of the best and brightest to public service and I believe that government can be a source of inspiration, not degradation.

It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for.

Keeping a lid on taxes is not just good for the taxpayer. It's a powerful way to force government to be more accountable, set priorities and spend smarter. Let me repeat that: more accountable, set priorities and spend smarter - that's what we need to be about.

Good government only happens when the people working in it do their jobs, and do them well.

I have my strong views and opinions. I really want to transform Illinois government because this state is failing the taxpayers and the children.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

There is nothing wrong with becoming more ambitious along the way, but I think what the government has asked the council to do is a perfectly good starting point.

I hate big government, but I really hate a government that doesn't work. So when 'they say we either have to raise taxes or cut core services,' it's actually a 'false choice.'

Congress is full of good, decent, smart people who have devoted their lives to public service.

After all, I have spent the better part of my adult life insisting that government be open... that government be accessible... and that government be held accountable to people who voted us into office.

Today we must make a pact with each other to end this reckless conduct with the people's government.

What Canada has to do is to have a government connected to the priorities of the people of which it is elected to serve. Those priorities include ensuring medicare is sustainable, support for the military, and tax and justice systems that work.

People in Oklahoma don't wake up every morning wondering what the government is going to do for them.