Robert Walpole Quotes

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.

Before we give the government any more money, show us some receipts.

I am not one of those who believe that we are bound to vote supplies to cover a deficiency in the treasury whenever called on, without investigating the causes which occasioned it.

Saying that you are advocating on behalf of small business does not grant a license to spend at will on more and more programs without congressional input, oversight, or statutory authority.

We should never waive the checks on government spending that taxpayers deserve.

Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reeactments, because a constant hold, by the nation, of the strings of the public purse is a salutary restraint from which an honest government ought not wish, nor a corrupt one to be permitted, to be free.

That's what a Congressman or a Senator is for -- to see that too much money don't accumulate in the national Treasury.

You can't have it both ways. You can't tell me that you're taxed enough already, and that you want constitutional government and then in the next breath say, 'Bring me home some bacon.' The pig has been picked clean.

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.

The public treasure has been duly applied to the uses to which it was appropriated by Parliament, and regular accounts have been annually laid before Parliament, of every article of expense.

It is not for the State Department or even the Secretary of State to say when and how the resources of the American people will be spent.

Government ... simply has no bottom line.

We as taxpayers don't have a line item veto.

there is often an imbalance between the prerogatives of the executive branch and the capacity of a parliament to truly exercise its regulatory powers over public spending and the budget.

Nations in general, even under governments of the more popular kind, usually commit the administration of their finances to single men or to boards composed of a few individuals, who digest and prepare, in the first instance, the plans of taxation, which are afterwards passed into laws by the authority of the sovereign or legislature.

From now on, the government has to make its accounts public on a quarterly basis.

Actively search for spending bills that I can veto as a sign of … financial stewardship.

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

Congress must demonstrate fiscal responsibility.

There is no doubt that there is a very strange phenomenon called the 'State Comptroller.'

We can't let government make long-term commitments that it may not be able to keep.

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

Taxpayers should be able to see where their money is being spent and what impact it is having.

My experiences building Palantir and running Addepar made me aware of serious problems with government and inspired me to build a non-profit to look into state spending.

Congress has the constitutional responsibility to control the power of the 'purse'.