quotations about the national debt
Some go so far as to maintain that the national debt is a part of our nationa1 wealth, and ought to be reckoned, along with the value of our commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, in estimating the amount of the national capital.
ROBERT HAMILTON
An Inquiry concerning the Rise and Progress, the Redemption and Present State and The Management of the National Debt of Great Britain
The national debt is not analogous in any way to a credit card. The debt has been used to pay for the infrastructure, roads, schools, ports, the Houses of Parliament and even Downing Street.
DAVID BLANCHFLOWER
attributed, Summer of Unrest: The Debt Delusion
Our national debt after all is an internal debt owed not only by the Nation but to the Nation. If our children have to pay interest on it they will pay that interest to themselves. A reasonable internal debt will not impoverish our children or put the Nation into bankruptcy.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
speech, May 22, 1939
First, I may point out that the payment of the National Debt is often treated as if the country were for the first time called upon to bear the burden of the outlay when it pays off the debt That is an entire mistake. The country has already spent the money.
ROBERT LOWE SHERBROOKE
speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, June 2, 1871
The national debt is represented by (short-term) Treasury bills, (intermediate-term) Treasury notes, and (long-term) Treasury bonds held by individuals, businesses, governments, and other creditors and backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
PETER D. SCHIFF
Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse
A national debt is indeed a blessing to the few, but a curse to the many. It is a blessing to brokers, stockjobbers, and unwieldy capitalists, who despise almost any security, short of the plighted faith of the Government. It may prove a blessing, too, to the few who wish to grow rich on special protection and special favoritism; but to the great working middling classes, who are never the recipients of special legislative favors, to them, I repeat, a national debt is any thing but a national blessing.
AARON VANDERPOEL
speech in the U.S. House of Representatives, March 19, 1840
The senseless, the almost insane opinion, that the national debt is a national blessing, is now being gradually exploded; and the time is fast coming when but few, except those who fatten on the enormous taxes created by that debt, will entertain so fallacious, so silly a notion.
D.D. VICESIMUS KNOX
The Spirit of Despotism
The debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.
NOAM CHOMSKY
9-11
The national debt was so huge that it was diffcult to comprehend. Cuts were coming, whoever won; deep, painful cuts; and sometimes, with their weasel words, the party leaders reminded Strike of the surgeons who had told him cautiously that he might experience a degree of discomfort; they who would never personally feel the pain that was about to be inflicted.
ROBERT GALBRAITH
The Cuckoo's Calling
I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to William Plumer, July 21, 1816
Interest on the national debt is the third largest component of our annual federal budget, after nondiscretionary social programs and military spending. That has been a relatively low cost, because the Fed has kept interest rates artificially low for years -- as savers can attest. Now, with the Fed hiking rates, interest costs are set to soar. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that every one percentage point hike in rates will cost $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years! And that's without adding to the debt itself every year by running budget deficits.
TERRY SAVAGE
"Burden of debt hangs over U.S. economy", Chicago Tribune, March 13, 2017
I have long argued that paying down the national debt is beneficial for the economy: it keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes.
ALAN GREENSPAN
speech, April 27, 2001
As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and next no one left to borrow from--so must it be with a government.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
campaign circular from Whig Committee, March 4, 1843
And till the National Debt is paid off, this is a real Mortgage upon the Estates of the Kingdom: for I will, for once, suppose, what idle unthinking People may have sometimes said, (but no sober Man, I am confident, ever did or will think) that when the Bulk of our increasing Debt is become too burdensome, there is a short Way to get rid of it. Well, admit this to be done: no Man, in his Wits, can imagine that it is to be attempted without a total Subversion of the Constitution; and can he be so silly as to think that the Power, which is sufficient to do this, will not be able to seize these Revenues? nay, that there will not be an absolute necessity of doing it, to support this Act of Injustice and Violence?
WILLIAM PULTENEY BATH
A state of the national debt: as it stood December the 24th, 1716
And this is why our ever-growing national debt is so perilous -- because even those who believe as I do that a strong and ready defense is the cornerstone of our security won't be able to guarantee it if current fiscal trends persist. Put simply: if we do nothing to pay down this debt and address the needs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, then America risks finding itself so weakened financially that some day in the not-too-distant future we just won't have the resources we need to equip and maintain our forces in the places they're needed most.
MITCH MCCONNELL
remarks on the Senate floor, United States Congressional Record, July 23, 2009
The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816
Many respected economists and statesmen believe our national debt is neither unwieldy nor a dangerous burden on the country. The trouble is that a vast majority of the American people think otherwise.... It violates basic American ideas of thrift and money management. These strong public feelings cannot be ignored forever.
MORRIS K. UDALL
speech, January 22, 1962
The common cry of speculative politicians has been, that the existence of the National Debt is burdensome, its increase alarming, and its extension, beyond a limited point, likely to be fatal. Thus far, they certainly have been mistaken.
EDWARD KING
Considerations on the Utility of the National Debt
It took the national debt two hundred years to reach $1 trillion. Supply Side Economics quadrupled the national debt to over $4 trillion in twelve years (1980-1992) under the Republicans. Bill Clinton actually paid down the national debt. How did he do it? He raised taxes. It produced the longest sustained economic expansion in U.S. History.
ED SCHULTZ
Straight Talk from the Heartland
The [American] national deficit is one of the least understood economic concepts, yet it's one of the best indicators of long-term economic health. You may be wondering, who owns the national debt? The media have led many to believe the Japanese do. Wrong! ... over 80 percent of the total outstanding national debt is in the form of bonds owned by Americans. Americans consider the bonds they buy as assets, not liabilities -- and 80 percent of the interest on the national debt goes right back to Americans as income -- upon which they pay taxes.
LARRY CHAMBERS
The Guide to Financial Public Relations