Steve Largent Quotes

The market economy does not automatically guarantee growth, social justice, or even economic efficiency; achieving those ends requires that government play an important role.

Government intervention only hurts; it doesn't help.

It should not be the government running the economy.

The government’s role is to motivate the private sector, to assure that it performs in a way which serves the public interest.

The existence of a free market does not of course eliminate the need for government. On the contrary, government is essential both as a forum and for determining the “rules of the game”.

While admirers of capitalism, we also to a certain extent believe it has limitations that require government intervention in markets to make them work.

A majority of Americans support Social Security and Medicare, a progressive tax system and a government that regulates business in the public interest, but most share deep skepticism about the government's ability to do all this well.

Just as the left has to be more willing to question 'Government knows best,' the right has to rethink its laissez-faire attitude toward government.

President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people.

However, leaving everything to the market is not necessarily good for society.

Either you believe in markets, or you believe in government.

Government has a perfect right, indeed a duty, to intervene in the economy in the name of justice, ecology, strategic interests, full employment, or other public goods in which the market has and can have no interest.

Just because there is a market failure, doesn’t mean there is a government solution.

We want free markets, but the markets are not going to take care of themselves in all cases.

If you look at government policy generally, what government tries to do in all instances is to make sure that we take care of all elements that might relate to a particular issue.

Whether we like it or not, government intervention in the face of surplus is here to stay.

Conservatives brayed that government should stay out of the private sector; liberals bleated for nationalizing the banks.

Conservatives want smaller government. They want to focus on market-based solutions wherever one can. They want to have as little regulation as possible. But in general, they recognize that government must play an important role for a society to operate.

We now consider as fundamental economic functions of the state, many duties that were left a generation ago to chance.

I think governments can't do much.

There's no conflict between the social-welfare state and open markets.

Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

My concept of government's role in people's lives is that it is limited but legitimate, and essential when people have nowhere else to turn.

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.

This administration in Washington that's in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it's the most qualified to make the most central decisions for every American in every area.