National Debt Quotes

• 

  Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.

  Herbert Hoover

  Children, Blessed, Government

  Herbert Hoover (1938). “Addresses upon the American road”

  100 Copy quote

  Show source

• A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Blessing, Conceited, Political

  Letter to Robert Morris, 30 Apr. 1781

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government Debt, Independence, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.242, Hackett Publishing

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never spend your money before you have earned it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Money, Debt Free, Owing A Debt

  95 Copy quote

• 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

  Political, Liberty, Dollars

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Blessing, Simple, Government

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: 1799-1803”, p.18, Cosimo, Inc.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Bless the children, for the national debt is theirs.

  Herbert Hoover

  Children, Debt, Bless

  4 Copy quote

• It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, War, Government Debt

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.184, Cosimo, Inc.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt.

  Barack Obama

  Leadership, America, Effort

  "It's Worth Actually Reading Obama's 2006 Debt Ceiling Speech". www.slate.com. October 09, 2013.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government Welfare, Government Debt, Historical

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.26, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• I found this national debt doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

  Barack Obama

  Office, Waiting, Debt

  "Obama fires up House Democrats to help push through stimulus bill". www.cnn.com. February 6, 2009.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A responsible government does not triple the national debt in eight years.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Responsible Government, Eight, Years

  Source: articles.latimes.com

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The problem is that the way [President] Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents - number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome - so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back. [That's] $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic.

  Barack Obama

  Children, Men, Numbers

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Government, Growth

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.126

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

  Barack Obama

  Children, Mean, America

  "Head Snapping Hypocrisy From Reid and Obama On the Debt Ceiling" by Karl Rove, www.foxnews.com. February 8, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Death, Country, Taxation

  William Cobbett's letter, February 10, 1804.

  39 Copy quote

  Show source

• ..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.

  George Washington

  War, Government Debt, Owing A Debt

  George Washington, William Jackson (1838). “Monuments of Washington's Patriotism: Containing a Fac Simile of His Publick Accounts Kept During the Revolutionary War; and Some of the Most Interesting Documents Connected with His Military Command and Civil Administration; Embracing, Among Others, the Farewell Address to the People of the United States”, p.16

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Consider in Washington, around the country today we are talking about balanced budgets, paying down our national debt, getting the economy going, defending ourselves, activist judges. Newt Gingrich did all those things when he was speaker. We got tax relief. We got balanced budgets. We got, you know, job creation. We paid down our national debt.

  J. C. Watts

  Country, Jobs, Talking

  "Gingrich Picks Up Endorsement From J.C. Watts". "Hannity" with Mark Steyn, www.foxnews.com. December 26, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralise the long-range effects of our national stupidity

  Frank Zappa

  Long, Stupidity, Would Be

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.239, Simon and Schuster

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• The burden of the national debt consists not in its being so many millions, or so many hundred millions, but in the quantity of taxes collected every year to pay the interest. If this quantity continue the same, the burden of the national debt is the same to all intents and purposes, be the capital more or less.

  Thomas Paine

  Years, Purpose, Debt

  Thomas Paine (1852). “The Rights of Man: With a Brief Historical Preface”, p.179

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I was a youngster growing up in South Dakota, we never referred to the national debt, it was always referred to as the war debt because it stemmed from World War I.

  George McGovern

  Growing Up, War, Debt

  "George McGovern: Barack Obama, Democrats Need a Backbone". Interview with Kira Zalan, www.usnews.com. December 2, 2011.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Solvency is maintained by means of a national debt, on the principle, "If you will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?"

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Money, Mean, Conceited

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2148, Delphi Classics

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mr. Obama plans to boost federal spending 25 percent while nearly tripling the national debt over 10 years. Americans know that this kind of spending will have economic consequences, including new taxes being imposed by the new progressives.

  Karl Rove

  Years, Debt, Kind

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Europe, Decision

  Paul Ryan's Speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, www.npr.org. August 29, 2012.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.

  Thomas Paine

  Debt, Bears, Cases

  Thomas Paine (2015). “The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies”, p.27, Ravenio Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source