William F. Buckley Jr. Quotes

You've got the Democratic Party that now depends on more government spending and actual building the dependence on government in order to increase their political party.

When government grows, it breaks the family.

Republicans know that government spending creates jobs. They just want that spending to be funneled to their projects and districts... and they certainly don't want to say it out loud.

Spending programs always and immediately create powerful political pressures to maintain and expand them generated by those who are the direct beneficiaries.

Having been governor of New Mexico, I know that legislation gets passed to benefit those who have money and influence. Then they buy more money and influence. That's one reason why, as governor, I vetoed more than 750 bills and thousands of line items. I did it to keep crony capitalism away from government.

Any stimulus package amounts to taking money from the pockets of some Americans and placing it in the pockets of others who have better political connections.

So every day I'm mindful as I watch the Bush crowd extend their sway into policies of every imaginable variety, and over almost every square foot of earth, that the control of the American state is a matter of urgency.

Enough to using Texas as a political laboratory for testing far-right ideas. Enough to using Texas as a workshop for fattening the wallets of their special interest friends and supporters. And enough of politicians listening only to each other, rather than real Texans.

To protect people's lives and keep our children safe, we must implement public-works spending and do so proudly. If possible, I'd like to see the Bank of Japan purchase all of the construction bonds that we need to issue to cover the cost. That would also forcefully circulate money in the market. That would be positive for the economy, too.

The pressure of special interests, the demands of special sections of the state, the needs of friends, all must be subordinated to the good of the people as a whole.

Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently.

Big government doesn't help the middle class, it buries it.

We pay a price when special interests win out over the collective national interest.

There's a lot of politics over who gets the next allocation of Congressional funding.

We are telling veterans they must sacrifice to pay for the pet projects and contracts to campaign donors of powerful members of Congress.

Money is power, and in that government which pays all the public officers of the states will all political power be substantially concentrated.

The first requisite of a sound monetary system is that it put the least possible power over the quantity or quality of money in the hands of the politicians.

When the business interests... pushed through the first installment of civil service reform in 1883, they expected that they would be able to control both political parties equally.

Government has really been growing, a lot of largesse, but the people in the real world aren't. And that's what has to change. Government has no conformity at all with the real world.

There is $2.6 trillion spent in Washington, with the authority to regulate everything in your life…. People will spend unheard-of amounts of money to influence that.

When I have to choose between voting for the people or voting for the special interests, I always stick with the special interests. They remember. The people forget.

I am not in Washington as a statesman. I am there as a very well paid messenger boy doing your errands. My chief occupation is going around with a forked stick picking up little fragments of patronage for my constituents.

When it comes to listening to my constituents or to the governor's staff, who are more interested in their pet projects and their government cars, I'll vote for my constituents every time.

Members of Congress don’t want anyone to have more influence than they have—that’s why they hated Harry Hopkins.

The size of government is not altogether that large in this country.