Dick Armey Quotes

When you’re spending 24 billion dollars in pork barrel transportation projects how can you go to the American people and talk about tax increases.

Our system of keeping the federal government's books is a monument to the creativity of mankind ... We've cut government spending for 15 years in a row, and yet have spent more money in each of those years.

Congress may spend money in aid of the "general welfare.

A trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

Mr. Obama plans to boost federal spending 25 percent while nearly tripling the national debt over 10 years. Americans know that this kind of spending will have economic consequences, including new taxes being imposed by the new progressives.

Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25 percent for domestic government agencies - an 84 percent increase when you include the failed stimulus. All of this new government spending was sold as 'investment.'

Budgets are moral documents. Federal funding should reflect the priorities and the values of the majority of the American people.

I have two measures every time I look at a bill. Is this in the best interests of the hardworking taxpayers in Northeast Ohio and the 14th District, and will this stimulate or encourage the economy to work?

After almost 50 years in which federal spending averaged about 20 percent of GDP, Joe Sestak and Nancy Pelosi took federal spending to 25 percent. You know, that's a 25 percent increase in the size of the government overnight. That's what we - that's what we've got to rein in.

George W. Bush is a big spender…. When Congress sends up a bill with big. fat, crackling pork, he says, “Where’s the barbecue sauce?”

When the greatest part of the [U.S.] budget pays for our defense and the livelihood of retirees, it is pointless to pretend that public spending is an embarrassment consisting only of welfare and waste.

Like Ike [President Eisenhower] did. Talk economy and then spend away.

Every dime spent is a political decision made.

Politicians have a natural inclination to spend in general, even as they disagree fiercely about what, specifically, to spend on.

Government spending is not wasteful. The question is, “Is it necessary?”

Congress is not an ATM

As quickly as you start spending Federal money in large amounts, it looks like free money.

The challenge for any government is how do you do two things at the same time. How do you put money forward for things like the payroll tax holiday, for things like getting a jump-start on infrastructure, for building schools, and make the decisions for long-term deficit reduction.

See, when the government spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when the money is left in the hands of taxpayers, God only knows what they do with it. Bake it into pies, probably. Anything to avoid creating jobs.

It is time to recognize a simple fact of life. Contrary to what some of my colleagues seem to believe, tax cuts do not pay for themselves.

I think it's important that people know what raising the debt ceiling is. It's Congress giving permission to the federal government to borrow more money that we don't have, and we borrow it for the purpose of spending it.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

When Bill Clinton was in town, he sent over a balanced budget.

The Pentagon budget, like all government spending, is an expression of priorities.

The federal government has never created one job that is sustainable long term. It creates government project work but not creating real work where people are.