Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

At a time when we're having to take such difficult decisions about how to cut back without damaging the things that matter the most, we should strain every sinew to cut error, waste and fraud.

From cutting back on state contracts to reducing the number of state cars, We're making state government smaller, smarter, more efficient, and more accountable.

Heavy lifting doesn't need to be heavy spending if we do the job right.

I went through all my electric bills, the water bills, the phone bills, elevator contracts, and I found enough wasteful spending without reducing any programs anywhere, without reducing any services, I found enough wasteful spending to pay my entire salary for three years.

Defense leaders should be searching for ways to reform out-of-date procurement processes, to collapse layers of Pentagon bureaucracy, and to restrain the growth in personnel and benefits costs. A critical first step in that process should be to conduct a full Pentagon audit to determine how DOD spends taxpayer dollars.

Every government program needs to be more efficient. Instead of pointing out how other programs can tighten their belts, every program administrator must look inward to save money.

There are certainly delays in this year's agreed program, and we must quickly catch up. Let's not kid ourselves, there is still big waste in the public sector, and it must stop.

There can be economy only where there is efficiency.

When I was director of the CIA, I knew that we had been - and I'm choosing my words very carefully here - effective in our expansion. We really had - expansion of government agencies and expansion of use of contractors. Effective, we were; efficient, we weren't. And so, as director of the CIA, I went after the inefficiencies part.

I got to get the right people in the right job. Because a lot of costs can be taken out in the context of your administration without the legislature. For example, using technology to do more with less. Using technology to fight fraud. Reorganizing and streamlining can be done within the context of the administration.

The only way to make budget cuts is to bring down force structure.

While we have appropriated money year after year to expand the agencies the agencies, departments, and the White House staff, we have neglected to staff ourselves adequately to meet our oversight responsibilities.

When a government agency is more efficient, they’re not necessarily going to get that money back. So they don’t always have an incentive.

The presidency is a place that is hemmed with all sorts of constraints and limitations. I don't think the American people quite know that the presidency is really a juggling act of competing pressures.

We don’t care what the cost-benefit is. We’re going to build it somehow because Congress says it’s going to be built.

There is no reason why government should not be as efficient as any good business.

It is time to cut out the mountains of waste and inefficiency and duplication in the federal government.

The bottom line is this: in an era of mounting fiscal challenges and competing demands, we must actively seek ways to free up time, money, and manpower to invest back into our top priorities.

Making everything more efficient should make everybody happier.

I have more government than I want, more government than I need, more government than I can afford.

We only invest in businesses that reduce labor.

Privatization is more efficient and effective in some cases, but not in intelligence.

When I took office in 2011, I made a commitment that the Office of Attorney General would find ways to do more while spending fewer taxpayer dollars.

We are a very big and vast Government, and naturally, every ministry is becoming bigger and bigger. It becomes, therefore, essential that there should be proper coordination.

From a productivity standpoint, you're supposed to reduce headcount on par with declining revenue. If you believe the environment isn't going to improve, you should take a bigger cut to get in front of the problems.