Government Roles Quotes

The difference between being a member of the House and being a member of the Senate is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit.

I happen to be one who believes very strongly that state and local governments have their proper roles.

The Vice President has two duties: To daily inquire about the health of the President and to attend the funerals of third world dictators, neither of which interest me.

As a general rule, the United States government is run by lawyers who occasionally take advice from economists. Others interested in helping the lawyers out need not apply.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.

For students, understanding the separate and unique functions of each branch of government can help them understand how different kinds of government officials can help solve different kinds of problems.

I see more clearly than ever, and I thought I saw before, that congressional life is not the best introduction to the President's house. Great and fully equipped as the general [James Garfield] is, there are embarrassments growing out of his long and brilliant career in Congress, which Jackson and Lincoln, and Grant, and myself, escaped.

Usually the president is kind of the initiator of the idea, then Congress makes it work.

Whatever position we may rise to, be it of MP, CM or PM, nothing can teach us the way villages can.

Secretary of state is far superior to vice president, because it's involved in continuously solving problems and making policy and not being on standby.

There are 14 Cabinet spots, and God only knows how many hundreds of people want them.

The federal government shouldn't be drawing lines on a map in terms of what transit infrastructure are needed; we should be there to be a partner with the cities, with the provinces, that need that.

The founding fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take one hundred of its most prominent numbskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm.

I generally leave the details of fiscal programs to the Administration and Congress. That's really their area of authority and responsibility, and I don't think it's appropriate for me to second guess.

But the federal government, our collective government, has responsibilities that none of these other levels of government can fulfill; and chief among these is national defense.

The states should have much more responsibility for infrastructure building.

The whole of government needs to contribute to the shared goal of restructuring the British economy. But that means taking on the myth that the Treasury either knows best or can run it all. It just doesn't.

I think we need more young people; we need to elect young people to government. We need to give them a chance, in the media, in politics, in democracy.

Being the chief minister of a regional government is just a pastime compared with the hellish job of being prime minister of two different communities brought together.

It would be naive to imagine we have solved all our income security problems simply because the roles of the federal and provincial governments in the area of skills training have been clarified.

I never had an interest in being a mayor ’cause that’s a real job. You have to produce. That’s why I was able to be a senator for 36 years.

Security today is important, but 90 percent of security involves other co functions of government.

Supreme Court nominees should be individuals who not only understand, but truly respect the equal roles and responsibilities of different branches of government and our state governments.

A mistake to be avoided is to appoint all your campaign operatives to government jobs. Campaigning and governing are different specialties.

I think that, you know, state and local governments play a critical role in the protection of this country and the protection of certain systems like our mass transit system. And we share information daily with our state and local officials. I think it's one of the reasons that we are safer today and I have every confidence that, in developing its policies, that the New York transit authorities have considered the legal considerations they should be considering in making these kinds of decisions and in formulating this policy.