Fiscal Policy Quotes

• Too often in recent history liberal governments have been wrecked on rocks of loose fiscal policy.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Rocks, Government, History

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1938). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1933, Volume 2”, p.50, Best Books on

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• 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

  Country, Government, America

  Barack Obama's speech Against Raising The Debt Ceiling on the floor of the US Senate, www.redstate.com. March 16, 2006.

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• Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefit from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.

  Alexander Fraser Tytler

  Democracies Have, Government, Democracy

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• The basic prescription for preventing deflation is therefore straightforward, at least in principle: Use monetary and fiscal policy as needed to support aggregate spending, in a manner as nearly consistent as possible with full utilization of economic resources and low and stable inflation. In other words, the best way to get out of trouble is not to get into it in the first place.

  Ben Bernanke

  Business, Support, Principles

  "Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here". Ben Bernanke's Remarks Before the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C., www.federalreserve.gov. November 21, 2002.

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• Europe unified its monetary policy through the euro before it unified politically, therefore sustaining member countries' abilities to pursue the kind of independent fiscal policies that can strain a joint currency.

  Amity Shlaes

  Country, Independent, Europe

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• As we get closer to the end of this Congress, we should be addressing the urgent needs of the American people - the war in Iraq, affordable health care, a sensible energy policy, quality education for our children, retirement security, and a sound and fair fiscal policy.

  Chris Van Hollen

  Retirement, Children, War

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• The administration's reckless plan doesn't do one thing to ensure the long term security of social security, rather it undermines our economy. We need a budget and a fiscal policy that reflects the values and interests of America and restores fiscal discipline.

  Debbie Stabenow

  America, Discipline, Long

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• The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.

  Paul Krugman

  Impact, Hands, Great Things

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• Fiscal policy, monetary policy, they need to work together to try and raise the level of growth.

  Joe Hockey

  Growth, Working Together, Trying

  Source: www.abc.net.au

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• When you're facing the threat of recession, you need to have an expansionary monetary and fiscal policy. Pre-Keynesian, Hooverite views are dead everywhere except on 19th Street in Washington.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Views, Needs, Threat

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation.

  Unknown

  Moving, Government, Voice

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• If we have a common currency, the main regulator for policy in the country is the fiscal policy.

  Iveta Radicova

  Country, Common, Currency

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• Without the triggers, that tax cut is irreponsible fiscal policy. Eventually, I think that will be the consensus view.

  Alan Greenspan

  Cutting, Thinking, Views

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• Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Seizing the results of someone's labor is equivalent to seizing hours from him and directing him to carry on various activities.

  Robert Nozick

  Philosophy, Political, Liberty

  "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" by Robert Nozick, (p. 169), 1974.

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• Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to support deficit spending. No private embezzlers or bank robbers in history have ever plundered people's savings on a scale comparable to the plunder perpetrated by the fiscal policies of statist governments.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, People, Support

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.234, Penguin

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• Fiscal policy is not just, or even not even principally, the purview of the president.

  Carly Fiorina

  President, Policy

  "The World According to Carly Fiorina". Interview with Lloyd Grove, www.wired.com. July 10, 2008.

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• ... it's important to have the right monetary policy. It's important for, to have the right fiscal policy. But it's nowhere near as important as just the normal regenerative capacity of American capitalism.

  Warren Buffett

  Important, Investing, Normal

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• I've always believed in expansionary monetary policy and if necessary fiscal policy when the economy is depressed.

  Paul Krugman

  Economy, Monetary Policy, Always Believe

  "Paul Krugman on Debt, but Are Soaring Interest Rates Running Against Him?". Interview with Paul Solman, www.pbs.org. May 29, 2013.

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• This nation is on a course where if we don't do something about it, get federal situation, the fiscal policy [under control], we're Greece. We're a banana republic. Our status as a nation is threatened by what we’ve got coming at us in the area of deficit and debt. And it’s only a few more years, at the most, that we have to work with here before the market says, ‘Sorry, your currency is something we can not continue to defend.’

  Judd Gregg

  Sorry, Years, Political

  "'We're Greece' in a Few Years: Sen. Gregg". www.cnbc.com. November 3, 2010.

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• The greatest threat facing America today
  is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government,
  marked by shameless deficit spending and
  Federal Reserve currency devaluation.
  It is this one-two punch -
  Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow,
  and the Fed printing money to make up the difference -
  that threatens to impoverish us by further
  destroying the value of our dollars.

  Ron Paul

  America, Government, Printing Money

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• Popular as Keynesian fiscal policy may be, many economists are skeptical that it works. They argue that fine-tuning the economy is a virtually impossible task, and that fiscal-stimulus programs are usually too small, and arrive too late, to make a difference.

  James Surowiecki

  Differences, Making A Difference, Tasks

  "The Stimulus Strategy". www.newyorker.com. February 25, 2008.

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• It's the [George Bush] president's fiscal policies that have driven up the biggest deficits in American history. He's added more debt to the debt of the United States in four years than all the way from George Washington to Ronald Reagan put together.

  John F. Kerry

  Years, President, Together

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• I would like to see Greece as a case study, an opportunity for Europe to strengthen its coordination of fiscal policy.

  George Papandreou

  Opportunity, Europe, Study

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• I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I'm trying to be more nuanced and realistic. I think there has to be a serious examination of the shortcomings of the Euro structure. Euro central institutions, whether it be fiscal policy, monetary policy, financial regulation, are simply not as robust as they are in a currency that has a national government behind it.

  Stephen Harper

  Thinking, Government, Trying

  Interview with Peter Mansbridge, www.theglobeandmail.com. June 5, 2012.

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• The United States has experienced high rates of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries over the past century.

  Laurence Kotlikoff

  Running, Country, Past

  "US 'could be going bankrupt'" by Edmund Conway, www.telegraph.co.uk. July 14, 2006.

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