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Government Quotes

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Government Quotes

“The founders understood that democracy would inevitably evolve into a system of legalized plunder unless the plundered were given numerous escape routes and constitutional protections such as the separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, election of senators by state legislators, the electoral college, no income taxation, most governmental functions performed at the state and local levels, and myriad other constitutional limitations on the powers of the central government.”

“This is a basic function of Congress to keep the government running. And so, what we ought not to do is play politics with those who have been affected by disasters.”

Has Beens Play Government Running Ought Function Congress Disaster Affected

Author:David Plouffe

“For some in Washington, it's become sport to pick on the federal workforce. I think they do so unjustly. The very foundation of a stable America is having a government that functions well. Many countries have dysfunctional governments, because they don't have a good government workforce.”

Thinking Wells Country Government America Sports Picks Function Foundation Stable Workforce

Author:Ken Salazar

“Government has a legitimate function, but the private sector has one too, and it is superior. In other words, people are better than institutions.”

People Government Function Institutions Superiors Private Sector

Book:The Wit & Wisdom of Cal Thomas

Source: The Wit & Wisdom of Cal Thomas

“What I have said is that I think the federal government and we as a society have come too far in trying to separate good organizations that perform good functions for people just based on the fact one has a religious association and one doesn't.”

People Thinking Trying Said Facts Government Religious Organization Function Association Federal Government Good Fun Good Organization

Author:Ken Buck

“The function of our Government is to insure to all its citizens, now and hereafter, their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If we of this generation destroy the resources from which our children would otherwise derive their livelihood, we reduce the capacity of our land to support a population, and so either degrade the standard of living or deprive the coming generations of their fight to life on this continent.”

“It is a seldom proffered argument as to the advantages of a free press that it has a major function in keeping the government itself informed as to what the government is doing.”

Government Majors Advantage Argument Function Presses Free Press

Author:Walter Cronkite

“It is not part of the functions of the national government to find employment for people - and if we were to appropriate a hundred millions for this purpose, we should be taxing forty millions of people to keep a few thousand employed.”

People Ifs Should Government Purpose Millions Thousand Hundred Function Employment Appropriate Forty Employed

Author:James A. Garfield

“Institutions such as schools, churches, governments and political organizations of every sort all tended to direct thought for ends other than truth, for the perpetuation of their own functions, and for the control of individuals in the service of these functions.”

Ends Government School Political Individual Church Direct Organization Function Institutions Zen Motorcycle Maintenance

Author:Robert M. Pirsig

“There isn't a single government agency that can't function. There's more money in this federal government, there's more money allocated than these people can possibly spend. They have to concoct asinine ways to spend it, like advertising for new food stamp users. I've gotten to the point, I'm just so righteously indignant and offended at the very idea that our government could ever run out of money when we've got a printing press, for crying out loud. Printed three and a half trillion dollars over seven years and flooded Wall Street with it.”

“No government functions without the grease of corruption.”

Government Function Corruption Grease

Book:The Eagle's Throne: A Novel

Source: The Eagle's Throne: A Novel

“A leader has to know how the system functions - not just the system of government but the whole social and economic system, including business, the unions, and the universities.”

Knows Whole Government Social Leader Know How Economic Function Unions Including University Economic Systems Systems Of Government

Author:Jean Chretien

“I believe that "government", as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a "Grameenized private sector", a social-consciousness-driven private sector, take over their other functions.”

Source: Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, Founder of the Grameen Bank

“To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government as a barrier against foreign foes... is [one of the] functions of the General Government on which [our citizens] have a right to call.”

Whole Government Nations Citizens Draws Function Barriers Foe

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“Education, and the life of the mind generally, is a matter in which individual initiative is the chief thing needed; the function of the state should begin and end with insistence on some kind of education, and, if possible, a kind which promotes mental individualism, not a kind which happens to conform to the prejudices of government officials.”

Source: Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18

“It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.”

Matter Government Purpose Individual Left Sides Religious Prayer Taken Atheism Citizens Exercise Conscience Function Mere Positive Atheism Instance Sole Secular Acknowledgment

Author:Barbara Brandriff Crabb