Jerry Brown Quotes

Government ... simply has no bottom line.

Under no circumstances will I allow expenditures upon works not clearly national.

Congress is not an ATM

Every American knows there are government expenses that are absolutely not necessary. I disagree with the very idea that our government is spending $2.4 trillion in the most efficient manner.

We do not have a revenue problem in D.C. or this county. We have a prioritization problem. When you create the priorities you fund the priorities of the country and you stop spending money when you get to zero.

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far, far from it, but there is no free lunch, as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble.

It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government economically administered.

Every dime spent is a political decision made.

Government does not have basic business sense.

Prioritizing spending and maximizing the effectiveness of taxpayer dollars is absolutely essential. We must draw the line, realigning programs when necessary and also eliminating failed programs.

To a certain extent, I have to be the president's bad cop from time to time. I have to look people in the eye and tell them, 'No, we don't have enough money for that.' That is not a very popular thing to do in Washington.

You know, even people who talk about cutting spending and they go 'That's not the spending that I was actually talking about that you're supposed to be cutting.' Well, we have to be looking across the board.

I am not one of those who believe that we are bound to vote supplies to cover a deficiency in the treasury whenever called on, without investigating the causes which occasioned it.

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

We're going to have to control the spending of government.

We need earmark reform, and when I'm President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.

I was able to promote a strong defense budget when it could have been cut a lot more severely.

The Gillard government must give up its addiction to wasteful spending borrowing and taxing.

Conservatives should insist that defense spending be examined with the same seriousness that we demand in examining the books of those government agencies that spend taxpayer money in the name of welfare, the environment, or education.

If you think that my job is to rob the Federal Treasury on your behalf, you have voted for the wrong man

You may think my business is to make appropriations, but it is not. It is to prevent their being made.

You spend a billion here and a billion there. Sooner of later it adds up to real money.

Economy in government does not mean spending little ... It means spending what you have and spending it well.

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of public moneys.

May the debt of the United States be discharged with speed and punctuality; and let not the people be deceived, by having the funds, established for that purpose, put to other uses.