Richard M. Daley Quotes

Governors would like the money to be left on a stump and let them come and pick it up and spend it where they want. Governors like to spread money around rather than target it.

I think the governors would all agree that what we don't want from the federal government is unfunded mandates.

The [teachers’] unions and the [school] districts have very different stakes in local control. The districts want the money and the programs that higher level governments can provide, but they also want autonomy in determining how resources are allocated. The unions are much less wedded to local autonomy. Indeed, much of their lobbying at the state level is to limit the autonomy of the districts.

The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending - with the exception of the money spent on them.

We simply can't keep providing money from the federal government in the form of subsidized or actual loans and Pell Grants when we don't have the money.

There is no such thing as a 'free' government benefit. Ask small-business owners who are footing skyrocketing bills for bottomless jobless benefits.

The term 'cost shifting,' as I use it, refers to those items in a university's budget that used to be reimbursed by the federal government but are no longer paid for by them.

If the government can make money, what on earth does it collect taxes for you and me for? Why don't it make what money it wants, take the taxes out, and give the balance to us?

The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy. It borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.

Well, now, and there's - for every dollar the federal government spends, there's real people on the other side, and so when we talk about reductions that are going to affect providers, that's going to affect hospitals and doctors and others.

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.

I can't help thinking if she - the director of a government agency - is this ignorant about what funding is available and where the money comes from - how often lower-level bureaucrats must give wrong answers when people are looking for help to start a business.

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

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

I think it's important that people know what raising the debt ceiling is. It's Congress giving permission to the federal government to borrow more money that we don't have, and we borrow it for the purpose of spending it.

I believe the only measure of government response shouldn't be how much we spend on a situation, but rather how well we spend.

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.

I don't mind the government accruing debts as long as every dollar is spent effectively with a high return. That works out fine. If you accumulate debts and waste your money, that's, of course, a disaster.

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

Well, no American wants to in any way hurt our capabilities to national defense, but that doesn't mean an unlimited amount of money, and a blank check for anything they want at any time, for any purpose. Not at all.

People still seem to think that they should vote themselves money. They seem to think there is stuff which they think is the government's job, when it's really the individual's job.

Remember that government doesn't earn one single dollar it spends. In order for you to get money from the government, that money must first be taken from somebody else.

We are not spending the Federal Government's money, we are spending the taxpayer's money, and it must be spent n a way which guarantees his money's worth and yields the fullest possible benefit to the people being helped.

It's not, 'We have a city to bid, now let's go check in with the federal government'.

For too long, unfunded federal mandates have drained the budgets of states and communities. The strength and vitality of our communities must be restored.