Barack Obama Quotes

We can't do without government, but we do need it to be more effective.

The demand of our people in 1980 is not for smaller government or bigger government but for better government.

I believe that smaller government is better government. But I also believe that in the areas where government does play a legitimate role, we should demand that it is done better.

It is often said by reformers that government should be conducted upon business principles.

I was elected to come to an incredibly dysfunctional capital and make the government work better, and that's what I'm doing.

The question today is not whether the government is too small or too small, but whether or not it works

We don't need more government, we just need the government we have to work smarter and more efficiently.

"Big" government? Who wants that? I just want effective government. That means America's government needs to be big in some places, small in others and non-existent in others.

[Peter] Drucker says that modern government can do only two things well: wage war and inflate the currency. Its the aim of my administration to prove Mr Drucker wrong.

Maybe we can show government how to operate better as a result of better architecture.

We need a new government that works.

Laying the groundwork for smaller, smarter government, especially at the federal level, is going to be tough. But it is essential for getting us back on the path to long-term prosperity.

Making government more efficient and more effective need not be a partisan issue.

My task as a citizen is to get the government to do more good and less inefficient and wasteful work.

You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.

For some in Washington, it's become sport to pick on the federal workforce. I think they do so unjustly. The very foundation of a stable America is having a government that functions well. Many countries have dysfunctional governments, because they don't have a good government workforce.

Administration is the essence of government, and its quality is a prime condition of civic comfort.

The issue isn't more or less government. It's dumb vs. smart government.

The question of our time is rapidly becoming can government get things done?

Government should do a few things, and do them right

We do not believe that if you cut back what government does you diminish its authority. On the contrary, a government that did less, and therefore did better, would strengthen its authority.

We should distinguish carefully skepticism about Big Government from contempt for all government.

Pakistan needs to have decentralisation and a good local government system.

Incredibly, whenever I have proposed the theory that half of government workers could be cut, current and former federal employees I know have all agreed.

The debate on how to shrink the federal government is at the core of our problem of government not doing its job.