James Q. Wilson Quotes

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

I don’t want to kill the government. I just want to shrink it down to a small enough size that I can flush it down the toilet.

We should distinguish carefully skepticism about Big Government from contempt for all government.

While we may argue about the size of government, the Republican Party has not been a party that says, 'I want to destroy government.'

I believe that smaller government is better government. But I also believe that in the areas where government does play a legitimate role, we should demand that it is done better.

Our morbidly obese federal government needs not just behavior modification but bariatric surgery.

Either we start cutting the government and shrinking the size of government, or else we're going to face the political wrath of the American people.

I will support vigorously whoever commits to reduce the size of government the most.

Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.

The debate on how to shrink the federal government is at the core of our problem of government not doing its job.

The federal government is far larger than the Founding Fathers ever intended it to be. We have racked up over $16 trillion of debt through wasteful spending, and it is time that we cut that waste and start reducing the size of our government.

Fiscal conservatism is just an easy way to express something that is a bit more difficult, which is that the size and scope of government, and really the size and scope of politics in our lives, has grown uncomfortable, unwieldy, intrusive and inefficient.

The fact is, my friends, most Americans don't want more government. They want less government.

Big government doesn't work! It just doesn't work!

I don’t want to eliminate government. I just want to shrink it down to the size that you can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the tub.

I’d cut down government spending and I’d move to keep down the size of government, too.

I don't believe we need any more taxes. We need to curtail the size of government. That seems to be a common thread among a majority of Americans out there that understand that we have to limit the size and scope of our government.

We need a Federal government that does what the government needs to do and stops doing what the government ought not to be doing.

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.'

Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles; elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them.

The question today is not whether the government is too small or too small, but whether or not it works

Good government has to mean less government.

We do not believe that if you cut back what government does you diminish its authority. On the contrary, a government that did less, and therefore did better, would strengthen its authority.

The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending - with the exception of the money spent on them.

I'm coming to Washington, D.C., to do the people's work. And the people's work has to do with reducing spending and cutting budgets and, and trying to get a grip on the size of government.