Robert Higgs Quotes

Those of you who end up in public service will come to appreciate the difficulty of wielding the extraordinary power of the government effectively and fairly. Much of this power is housed in the many departments and agencies that are charged with carrying out specific functions of government. Those who do not have daily interactions with a government agency may not realize just how much influence bureaucracies wield.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

A bureau that benefits a well organized interest group will fare better in getting the sinews for administration than a bureau whose benefits are diffused over unorganized consumers or whose function is to restrain rather than to confer benefits.

So you represent Congress, what the fuck is that to the CIA. You’ll be gone in a few years and the CIA will still be here.

But politicians who talk about failed policies are just blowing smoke. Government policies succeed in doing exactly what they are supposed to do: channeling resources bilked from the general public to politically organized and influential interests groups.

Powers once assumed are never relinquished, just as bureaucracies, once created, never die.

Economics, politics, and personalities are often inseparable.

If you spend enough time in or around Washington, you'll meet amazing people who work for the government.

There are only two powers that matter in the bureaucracy of Washington: The power to say ‘Here’s your money,” and the power to say “You’re fired!”

We are the beast of state government.

Priorities are set by legislators, regulators and industry interests. The consumer gets the left-overs.

In today's society a zoning commissioner or a tax assessor can have far greater impact on personal liberty than a president.

You cannot rely on House or Senate staff to pass a piece of legislation for you, but if you have antagonized staff, they can block you.

Everybody always wants more staff. That’s why the federal government gets so overloaded.

Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving—how not to do it. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart.

Everyone who lobbies represents someone’s particular point of view.

No one can be truly powerful unless he has access to the command of major institutions, for it is over these institutional means of power that the truly powerful are, in the first instance, truly powerful...

the career bureaucracy can project greater political power on its own, resist more successfully the politician's attempts to assert effective control. What is lost in administrative efficiency through spoils may be gained in political development, especially if party patronage can also be used as a lever to gain control over administration.

The chances of catastrophe grow as organizations grow in number and size, and as internal communications become more time consuming and less intelligible.

The State is a collection of officials, different for difference purposes, drawing comfortable incomes so long as the status quo is preserved. The only alteration they are likely to desire in the status quo is an increase of bureaucracy and the power of bureaucrats.

A bureaucracy always tends to become a pedantocracy.

Bureaucracy is ever desirous of spreading its influence and its power. You cannot extend the mastery of the government over the daily working life of a people without at the same time making it the master of the people's souls and thoughts.

The bureaucracy needs to do more than one thing at a time. It’s appropriate to save people with helicopters, but it can’t be done to the exclusion of everything else.

Cabinet Secretaries often have no control over their own agencies.

It is no secret that Washington, D.C., is a tempest of people and institutions relentlessly seeking power over the lives of everyday Americans.