Jim Talent Quotes

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

Taxes are an important tool for us together with infrastructure investments, research, and development to create more jobs.

I'm not going to raise taxes; I'm not going to have a wage increase for public employees.

We have to deal with two issues. Spending and taxes.

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.

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

What you really want to do is sit down and find a place that you can control government spending and raise more revenue.

The fundamental problem is that President Obama has grown government. He has grown the private sector jobs.

If we increase spending, we have got to raise taxes or any combination.

And taking more money out of the private economy and having the government perform as it has poorly done with the stimulus I don't think is the right way to go.

Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more.

There's a lot of evidence you can sell people on tax increases if they think its an investment.

The revenue of the country, levied almost insensibly to the taxpayer, goes on from year to year, increasing beyond either the interests or the prospective wants of the Government

Government spending cannot create additional jobs. If the government provides the funds required by taxing the citizens or by borrowing from the public, it abolishes on the one hand as many jobs as it creates on the other

Raising taxes won't create private sector jobs.

It is human nature that when you see something work well, you do more of it. If, in its ceaseless quest for revenue, government sees a seemingly harmless method of raising funds without causing much inflation, it will grab on to it.

If taxes and government spending are both slashed, then the salutary result will be to lower the parasitic burden of government taxes and spending upon the productive activities of the private sector.

Governments don't reduce deficits by raising taxes on the people; governments reduce deficits by controlling spending and stimulating new wealth.

We don't need more politicians insisting we have deficits because you're not taxed enough. Those deficits ballooned from an economy that didn't grow enough and from 50 years of government spending too much.

People listen to me, and they hear about a government they want, a government... that will cut spending, cut taxes, that will focus on private-sector job creation.

If the government mandates anything with a price tag on it, then it ought to fund the project.

Government is just spending too much money.

Past experience with fiscal austerity at home and overseas strongly suggests that it is best for the economy's long-run performance to restrain government spending rather than raise taxes.

I would cap the amount of federal government can spend at 20 percent of the economy. Bring it back to 20 percent or lower. And say, we are not going to spend above that level. Democrats, they want to raise your taxes and spend more and more and turn us into an economy which is no longer driven by the private sector.

There was no measure that required greater caution or more severe scrutiny than one to impose taxes or raise a loan, be the form what it may. I hold that government has no right to do either, except when the public service makes it imperiously necessary, and then only to the extent that it requires.