A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property - an unpaid tax bill. — Hans F. Sennholz
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. — Alexander Hamilton
The national debt has given rise to joint stock companies, to dealings in negotiable effects of all kinds, and to agiotage , in a word to stock-exchange gambling and the modern bankocracy . — Karl Marx
It took $185 trillion of debt to produce about $46 trillion of GDP growth over the last twenty years. — Jeff Booth
It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralise the long-range effects of our national stupidity — Frank Zappa
The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her. — Ross Perot
The sale of Treasury bonds, notes, and bills finances the U.S. government, and those securities are, in turn, a primary vehicle for savings for a wide range of U.S. households. — Jerome Powell
If you want another world war, run up unsustainable debts. — Tucker Carlson
Debt is never bad. What one does with it determines the goodness or the badness of the debt. — Thomas Phelps
Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt. — Herbert Hoover
No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence. — Thomas Jefferson
Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver. — Ambrose Bierce
Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt. — William Cobbett
Now we are raising the debt limit 3 times, up to $8 trillion, so that our children and our grandchildren will have to pay for the cost of our expenditures. — Chaka Fattah
Short Government Debt Quotes
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. — Thomas Jefferson
A small debt produces a debtor; a large one, an enemy. — Publilius Syrus
Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more. — Allan H. Meltzer
Some debts are fun while you are acquiring them, But none are fun when you set about retiring them. — Ogden Nash
Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
National Debt Quotes
I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country. — Andrew Jackson
America's fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers that have paid the ultimate price for this cause, as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed. — Allen Boyd
A national debt if it is not excessive will be to us a national blessing; it will be powerfull cement of our union. It will also create a necessity for keeping up taxation to a degree which without being oppressive, will be a spur to industry. — Alexander Hamilton
Love your country, but never trust its government.
Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay, but we can honor their sacrifice. — Barack Obama
As to Taxes, they are evidently inseparable from Government. It is impossible without them to pay the debts of the nation, to protect it from foreign danger, or to secure individuals from lawless violence and rapine. — Alexander Hamilton
Omega candles aren’t possible. US national debt is rising by $1 trillion dollars every 100 days. That’s 100 Omega candles a day. — Samson Mow
The government will one day be corrput and filled with liars and the people will flock to the one who tells the truth.
We don`t need to drive up the national debt by giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. — Bernie Sanders
Because Social Security has not contributed to our debt, Americans should be skeptical of any politician who says that benefits Americans have earned must be reduced in order to address our national debt. — Hank Johnson
Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the Military-Industrial Complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. — Hunter S. Thompson
The nations which have put mankind and posterity most in their debt have been small states Israel, Athens, Florence, Elizabethan England. — Bill Vaughan
Debt Quotes
Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think. — Noam Chomsky
Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices. — Harry S. Truman
Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe. — Mark Twain
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.
..we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile. — Paul Laurence Dunbar
A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody. — George Bernard Shaw
If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments. — Earl Wilson
Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinkng. They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.
I feel these days like a very large flamingo. No matter what way I turn, there is always a very large bill. — Joseph O'Connor
Under its current form, that is imperialism-controlled, debt is a cleverly managed re-conquest of Africa, aiming at subjugating its growth and development through foreign rules. Thus, each one of us becomes the financial slave, which is to say a true slave. — Thomas Sankara
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. — Ta-Nehisi Coates
The rich man who gives to the poor does not bestow alms but pays a debt. — Ambrose
Indebtedness Quotes
One of Satan's greatest tools is pride: to cause a man or a woman to center so much attention on self that he or she becomes insensitive to his Creator or fellow beings. It is a cause for discontent, divorce, teenage rebellion, family indebtedness, and most other problems we face. — Ezra Taft Benson
A man's indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude. — Ruth Benedict
College students today are drowning in debt, and it is hurting them and hurting our economy. We must find a way to help families pay for college without condemning them to a lifetime of indebtedness. — Elizabeth Warren
The government's first duty is to protect the people.
OWE, v. To have (and to hold) a debt. The word formerly signified not indebtedness, but possession; it meant "own," and in the minds of debtors there is still a good deal of confusion between assets and liabilities. — Ambrose Bierce
There is a built-in sense of indebtedness in the consciousness of man, an awareness of owing gratitude, or being caled upon at certain moments to reciprocate, to answer, to live in a way which is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living. — Abraham Joshua Heschel
Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm. — Friedrich Nietzsche
If there is no justice for the people, there be no peace for the government.
Anybody who has ever been in business, anybody who has ever paid bills, anybody who has ever lived in a serious adult life knows that indebtedness is a killer. — Frank Lautenberg
Americans have a strange notion that the ordinary laws of economics do not apply to them. So doubtless they will think they are prosperous if the boom starts, and that deficits and indebtedness are merely signs of how prosperous they are. — Albert J. Nock
Let us candidly confess our indebtedness to the needle. How many hours of sorrow has it softened, how many bitter irritations calmed, how many confused thoughts reduced to order, how many life-plans sketched in purple! — Caroline Wells Healey Dall
The idea of regularly acknowledging our indebtedness to the natural world and giving thanks for the many gifts we receive from it, or considering other species to be our close "relations" which many indigenous peoples still do, couldn't be more alien to most of us. — Charlie Cook
Government Spending Quotes
Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government. — James Madison
When a business or an individual spends more than it makes, it goes bankrupt. When government does it, it sends you the bill. And when government does it for 40 years, the bill comes in two ways: higher taxes and inflation. Make no mistake about it, inflation is a tax and not by accident. — Ronald Reagan
Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I've never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I've never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity. — Arthur Laffer
A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them. Which would include their own government.
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? — Ronald Reagan
State capitalism is about more than emergency government spending, implementation of more intelligent regulation, or a stronger social safety net. It's about state dominance of economic activity for political gain. — Ian Bremmer
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. — James Madison
The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from government.
The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending. — Thomas Sowell
Unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcy - the cure is not more government spending, but helping businesses create jobs. — Brian Sandoval
Conservatives should question how the death penalty actually works in order to stay true to small government, reduction in wasteful spending, and respect for human life. — Jay Sekulow
Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them. — Margaret Thatcher
Debt Crisis Quotes
Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence - those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. — Aldous Huxley
Every financial crisis is made out of excess money and credit. — Russell Napier
All crises have involved debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale in relation to the underlying means of payment. — John Kenneth Galbraith
The duty of a true Patriot is to protect his country from its government.
Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I am confident that we can overcome this crisis, provided that we remain united in our effort to address our debt and competitiveness problems. And I think that the Greek people are united; it's important also that the political forces are united in line with the will of the Greek people. — Lucas Papademos
The World Bank is now the biggest culprit in the debt crisis. — Susan George
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Civilization has given us enormous successes: going to the moon, technology. But then this is the civilisation that took us to debt, environmental crisis, every single crisis. We need a civilization where we say goodbye to these things. — Muhammad Yunus
At this time - we're in a dramatic crisis - euro bonds are precisely the wrong answer. They lead us into a debt union, not a stability union. Each country has to take its own steps to reduce its debt. — Angela Merkel
Our platform calls for a balanced deficit reduction plan where the wealthy pay their fair share. And when your country is in a costly war, with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare - it's patriotism. — Cory Booker
If there is one common theme to the vast range of crises...it is that excessive debt accumulation, whether it be by the government, banks, corporations, or consumers, often poses greater systemic risks than it seems during a boom. — Carmen Reinhart
Government Budget Quotes
If congress refuses to obey its own rules. If congress refuses to pass a balanced budget. If congress refuses to read the Bills. Then I say, sweep the place clean, limit their terms, and send them HOME! — Rand Paul
There is no real justification for a requirement that a budget of any sort should be balanced, except as a rallying point for those who seek to hamstring government. — William Vickrey
Ed Balls has made it crystal clear that, left to its own devices, a Labour government would simply carry on with the same budget policies as the Tories. — Nicola Sturgeon
It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power...So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t. — Paul Krugman
If a government resorts to inflation, that is, creates money in order to cover its budget deficits or expands credit in order to stimulate business, then no power on earth, no gimmick, device, trick or even indexation can prevent its economic consequences. — Henry Hazlitt
The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife. — Thomas Jefferson
A tax cut means higher family income and higher business profits and a balanced federal budget. — John F. Kennedy
Economics and finance is the final frontier for women; it’s the last thing they will conquer because controlling finance is at the heart of everything in government. — Liz Truss
The government can access these funds but only following approval by the parliament to support our budget requirements and investments in infrastructure development, education, public health, and so on. — Jose Ramos-Horta
And as the vicissitudes of Nations beget a perpetual tendency to the accumulation of debt, there ought to be in every government a perpetual, anxious, and unceasing effort to reduce that, which at any times exists, as fast as shall be practicable consistently with integrity and good faith. — Alexander Hamilton
Debt Ceiling Quotes
An increase in the debt ceiling should be accompanied by fundamental policy reforms, substantial budget savings, and a strong enforcement mechanism to tie the hands of any future Congress. — Jerome Powell
The debate we won't be having is whether or not the debt ceiling should be raised. We will not have a situation where people will hold the American economy hostage in order to achieve a specific agenda - at least not until 2013. So we think that is incredibly important as a matter of economic good. — Jay Carney
The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. — James Surowiecki
Raising the debt ceiling is not additional spending. It is simply saying, you, the United States of America, can continue to borrow the money you need to pay the bills you have already rung up. — Jay Carney
First they didn't believe in evolution. Then they didn't believe in global warming. Now the debt ceiling. What I call 'the moron trifecta.' — Bill Maher
Most of the major increases in the debt ceiling have been accompanied by structural changes in the way we raise and spend money. — Charles Bass
It is simply science fiction fantasy to say that, if you do not raise the debt ceiling, that everything is going to collapse. — Mike Lee
If it took multiple debt ceiling hikes, I'd rather achieve the savings. — Bob Corker
We need to get rid of the debt ceiling law. It's anachronistic and it's a problem. — Mark Zandi
I would vote against raising the national debt ceiling. Again, this is about mortgaging the future of unborn generations of Americans. It's a form of taxation without representation. I don't think we can do that. — Mike Lee
Debt Management Quotes
Two big lessons: 1: Never use a token you created as collateral. 2: Don't borrow if you run a crypto business. Don't use capital 'efficiently.' Have a large reserve. Binance has never used BNB for collateral, and we have never taken on debt. — Changpeng Zhao
When do stockholders get no benefit from retained earnings? One way is when managements pile up cash and liquid assets far beyond any present or prospective needs for the business. — Philip Arthur Fisher
Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment. — Bobby Hull
If you don't have the money management skills yet, using a debit card will ensure you don't overspend and rack up debt on a credit card. — T. Harv Eker
The marathon is all about energy management. I had planned to run it like a track race with strategic surges to blow up my competitors by putting them into oxygen debt, so that is the way I prepared. — Frank Shorter
Too much of the income gains go to too few people, even though all of the stakeholders worked together to make their companies successful. By failing to put enough income into more hands, the GDP grows slower and consumers manage to meet their needs by incurring high levels of debt. — Philip Kotler
When our most important issue is the debt that we're piling on our children and grandchildren, I think it's pretty helpful to have someone in the U.S. Senate who has actually managed billions of dollars and knows how to cut billions of dollars. — Carly Fiorina
The debt austerity would not be problems if we had technological progress. If you doubled the debt in the U.S., and the size of the economy doubled because of technological progress and growth, the two would roughly cancel out and it would all be a totally manageable situation. — Peter Thiel
We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet. In my view we have nothing to show for it. We haven't invested in our roads, our bridges, our waste-water systems, our sewer systems. We haven't even maintained the assets that our parents and grandparents built for us. — Michael Bennett
It is imperative that we make consumers more aware of the long-term effects of their financial decisions, particularly in managing their credit card debt, so that they can avoid financial pitfalls that may lead to bankruptcy. — Daniel Akaka
Deficit Spending Quotes
We think we can't survive without deficit spending - but we soon won't be able to survive with deficit spending, either. — Tony Blankley
I'm finding myself really angry over spending and the deficit. I'm finding myself really angry over what's happening in the Middle East, the decision to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. I'm angry about cap and trade. And I've been on record for a long time on the failed war on drugs. — Gary Johnson
Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers. — Ron Paul
Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. — Alan Greenspan
We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan
We don't need more politicians insisting we have deficits because you're not taxed enough. Those deficits ballooned from an economy that didn't grow enough and from 50 years of government spending too much. — Ronald Reagan
Governments don't reduce deficits by raising taxes on the people; governments reduce deficits by controlling spending and stimulating new wealth. — Ronald Reagan
To reduce deficit spending and our enormous debt, you reign in spending. You cut the budget. You don't take more from the private sector and grow government with it. And that's exactly what Obama has in mind with this expiration of Bush tax cuts proposal of his. — Sarah Palin
The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect. — Sam Ewing
The goal is to reduce the size and scope of government spending, not to focus on the deficit. The deficit is the symptom of the disease. — Grover Norquist
The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. — Taylor Caldwell
Every American born today owes $43,000 to the federal government the day she or he is born. And we are transferring a tremendous amount of debt to the new generation, much of it owed to overseas creditors who expect to be repaid by our children with interest. — Mark Kirk
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure... It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. — Barack Obama
We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. — Marco Rubio
The real point about credit bubbles is that they are fueled by the promise of government actions, not the reality of what has been achieved. — Russell Napier
If the US Government was a family—they would be making $58,000 a year, spending $75,000 a year, & are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget & debt, reduced to a level that we can understand. — Dave Ramsey
I can scarcely contemplate a greater calamity that could befall this country, than be loaded with a debt exceeding their ability ever to discharge. If this be a just remark, it is unwise and improvident to vest in the general government a power to borrow at discretion, without any limitation or restriction. — Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger
These subsidies from four European governments, which include aircraft launch assistance, capital injections, debt forgiveness, have enabled Airbus to develop and range market airliners well below cost. — Norm Dicks
The Government of Iraq also owes a debt to the American and coalition forces who are fighting the insurgency and helping put that country back together after decades of repression. — Ike Skelton
We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out.... We will stand by our homes and stay by our firesides by force if necessary, and we will not pay our debts to the loan-shark companies until the government pays its debts to us. — Mary Elizabeth Lease
With all this consumer debt, business debt, government debt, smaller movements in interest rates have a magnified effect. a small movement can tip the boat. — Bill Gross
The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts. — Henry Ford
Allow a government to decline paying its debts and you overthrow all public morality-you unhinge all the principles that preserve the limits of free constitutions. Nothing can more affect national prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possibly the incurring of any new debt. — Alexander Hamilton
To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences, I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as are clearly with the constitutional authority of the Federal Government. — Martin Van Buren
Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget. — Matt Taibbi
I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing. — Thomas Jefferson
The Illuminati bankers rule the world through debt, which is money they create out of nothing. They need world government to ensure no country defaults or tries to overthrow them. As long as private bankers, instead of governments, create money the human race is doomed. These bankers and their allies have bought everything and everyone. — Henry Makow
What our economy needs is direct job creation by the government and mortgage-debt relief for stressed consumers. What it very much does not need is a transfer of billions of dollars to corporations that have no intention of hiring anyone except more lobbyists. — Paul Krugman
The dollar represents a one dollar debt to the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Banks create money out of thin air to buy Government Bonds from the U.S. Treasury...and has created out of nothing a ... debt which the American people are obliged to pay with interest. — Wright Patman
I make a fortune from criticizing the policy of the government, and then hand it over to the government in taxes to keep it going. — George Bernard Shaw
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their growth in our own. — John Adams
Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. — James Madison
..either immediately or ultimately every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation. Once we look at the matter. In this way, the supposed miracles of government spending will appear in another light. — Henry Hazlitt
Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt 'unpatriotic' - serious talk from what looked to be a serious reformer. Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt. — Paul Ryan
The salient feature of America in the Age of Obama is a failed government class institutionally committed to living beyond its means, and a citizenry too many of whom are content to string along. — Mark Steyn
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans on the triumph of the government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. — Sullivan Ballou
After adding trillions to the debt on big-government policies most Americans didn't ask for and which we couldn't afford, Democratic leaders say they need more money, which they intend to take from small business, even though small businesses create the majority of new jobs. — Mitch McConnell
People who buy government debt deserve to be punished and taught a lesson — Doug Casey
It would be a very odd chancellor of any UK government that insisted on a course of action that cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, that blew a massive hole in their balance of payments and, because assets and liabilities go hand in hand, would potentially leave the rest of the UK shouldering the entirety of UK debt. — Nicola Sturgeon
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. — George Washington
I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other. — James Madison
Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people. — Wendell Phillips
Government spending is being restrained, the economy is making progress and moving forward, and the pro-growth, tax cutting policies put in place have allowed businesses to grow, which has brought in additional tax revenue to help pay off the debt. — Bill Shuster
This is a derivative, if you will, of Cloward-Piven [theory]. "[Stephen] Lerner's plan is to organize a mass, coordinated 'strike' on mortgage, student loan, and local government debt payments - thus bringing the banks to the edge of insolvency and forcing them to renegotiate the terms of the loans. — Rush Limbaugh
A responsible government does not triple the national debt in eight years. — Daniel Patrick Moynihan
The primary factor that enables our government to peddle economic snake oil is the dollar's unique role as the world's reserve currency, and our creditors' willingness to preserve its status. By buying up dollars and loaning them back to us through Treasury debt, productive countries give American politicians cart blanche to play Santa Claus. — Peter Schiff
People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. — Taylor Caldwell
The best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to pay as it goes-not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out of debt-through an adequate income secured by a system of taxation, external or internal, or both. — William McKinley
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