Ben Stein Quotes


Related Quotes

President Jefferson in 1803, in the first instance of presidential impoundment, deferred for a few months the building of gunboats for which Congress had appropriated funds. In 1876 the President actually refused to spend the congressionally appropriated funds for river and harbor improvements in the midst of bad economic times:


Although the Professor was often right about this technique, at the time he made this statement, the Clinton administration was actually cutting spending and using much of the revenue to pay for the deficit—just the opposite of what the Professor was worried about. It was successful and the deficit was eliminated and surpluses were projected. However the succeeding administration more closely followed the professor’s pattern and increased spending enormously for serious needs, but also cut taxes, so that we went during the Bush administration from the largest projected surplus in American history to the greatest deficit in American history.


Ben Stein
Ben Stein
  • Born: November 25, 1944
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Writer, Actor, Lawyer

Benjamin Jeremy Stein is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before entering the entertainment field as an actor, comedian, and game show host. He is best known on screen as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, as the host of Win Ben Stein's Money, and as Dr. Arthur Neuman in The Mask and Son of the Mask. Stein co-wrote and starred in the 2008 documentary Expelled, which portrays intelligent design creationism as if it were a scientifically valid alternative to Darwinian evolution and alleges a scientific conspiracy against those promoting intelligent design in laboratories and classrooms. Stein is the son of economist and writer Herbert Stein, who worked at the White House under President Nixon. As a character actor he is well known for his droning, monotonous delivery. In comedy, he is known for his deadpan delivery.