Richard Cohen Quotes

Many people say that in a liberalised world there is little for the government to do, but the fact is that there is much for the government to do in fewer areas. One such area is to provide infrastructure.

It is absolutely clear that government plays a key role, as a catalyst, in promoting long-run growth.

The government playing entrepreneur is not a good role for the government.

All's the government should do is keep the taxes and regulations at a manageable rate, keep a decent standing army and get out of the way.

I was criticized at some level within the Republican Party by those who say government should not be in the economic development business at all. My response is that the only country I know that doesn't have an economic development plan is Papa New Guinea.

Government is inevitably going to play a very significant role in infrastructure, and in a country with a federal system where vibrancy and economic health depend on interstate commerce, it's not going to be private enterprise or state governments that will give you things like an interstate highway system.

Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.

Devolutionary reform will not provide a factory, a machine or jobs, build a school, train a doctor or put a pound on pensions.

The job of government must be to provide the rules and the climate that will let the system work.

All that Latin America needs is a friendly climate for private enterprise. This view disregards the need for building roads, ports, power plants and communications systems which must be built at least in great part with public funds and which in many areas are a prerequisite for the effective and profitable investment of private capital.

Government has always driven growth.

The army did more to shape the pattern and direction of economic development than did any other federal agency, any state government, or any private agency.

Secretary Clinton, right from day one, wants to do real investment in public works and infrastructure, building highways and bridges, building airports, to doing what we need to do that way which lifts the economy up, undoubtedly.

We have provided capital here with a couple of institutions recently. The Federal government did that in the '30s for the RFC and I think there could well be a proper role for government in that.

Government can't create wealth, but it can create the conditions for private enterprise to flourish.

It's been said that government doesn't create jobs, business does. For the most part, this is true. But government creates the environment in which businesses can excel and expand.

As President Bush has said on numerous occasions, it is the government's role to create the conditions, the friendly environment, that will attract capital.

Chronic deficits drastically reduce government's ability to make those infrastructure investments that business needs to grow and create jobs.

Some things are too important to be left to the private sector.

Many people think that the U.S. is ahead in the frontier technology sectors as a result of private sector entrepreneurship. It's not. The U.S. federal government created all these sectors.

I am not saying that government has nothing to offer. Government has an important role in fostering an environment conducive to business creation while also protecting its citizens. These are not mutually exclusive.

Throughout U.S. history, competent public investments have been an essential complement to private investments - from the Louisiana Purchase, to land-grant colleges, to the Interstate Highway System, to the Internet.

I'm sort of suspicious of most economic development projects, but the ones that encourage taxpayer-funded relocation bidding wars should be declared unconstitutional.

Canada was built from its very beginnings on the belief that public leadership in the economy and on social issues would be as effective and cheap as anything done by the private sector.

The economy is the creation of the personal initiative of private citizens….Public authorities also must play an active role in promoting increased productivity with a view to social progress and the welfare of all citizens.