quotations about the national debt
It is a terrible situation when the Government, to insure the National Wealth, must go in debt and submit to ruinous interest charges, at the hands of men, who control the fictitious value of gold. Interest is the invention of Satan.
THOMAS EDISON
attributed, American Manifest Destiny and the Holocausts
Such was the origin of that debt which has since become the greatest prodigy that ever perplexed the sagacity and confounded the pride of statesmen and philosophers. At every stage in the growth of that debt the nation has set up the same cry of anguish and despair. At every stage in the growth of that debt it has been seriously asserted by wise men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. Yet still the debt went on growing; and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as ever.
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY
History of England
For several years past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. By this means a new national debt has been created, and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful to contemplate--a rapidity only reasonably to be expected in a time of war. This state of things has been produced by a prevailing unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to direct taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and money cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans is but temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not only ruinous while it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us destitute. 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. We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is now denied by no one.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Whig circular, 1843
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Samuel Kerchevel, July 12, 1816
Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.
HERBERT HOOVER
Addresses Upon the American Road
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
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 1982
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 it's being a public blessing.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Elbridge Gerry, January 26, 1799
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. Well, what we have now, at least two thirds of it, is the war debt. We're never going to make a substantial cut in that debt until we quit getting into these unnecessary wars.
GEORGE MCGOVERN
attributed, "George McGovern: Barack Obama, Democrats Need a Backbone", U.S. News, December 2, 2011
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own.
JOHN ADAMS
First Address to Congress, November 23, 1797
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of it's constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to John Taylor, November 26, 1798
Once upon a time, the United States was the wealthiest and most generous nation in the world -- rebuilding countries after wars, supplying aid in natural disasters, and supporting allies and emerging democracies. We did all this and also built roads and airports at home. We are still the wealthiest and most generous nation in the world. But in the past few decades we have come to realize that we can't pay for everything -- even by going into debt. And it has taken us $20 trillion-plus in debt to come to that conclusion.
TERRY SAVAGE
"Burden of debt hangs over U.S. economy", Chicago Tribune, March 13, 2017
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
letter, February 10, 1804
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
Common Sense
Debt itself has become institutionalized. Today, many people simply accept as a fact of life that the national debt is unimaginably high. The problem, though, is that we cannot continue the exponential expansion of debt without a catastrophic economic outcome.
ADDISON WIGGIN
The Demise of the Dollar
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
Rights of Man
For, if the National Debt is to be paid off solely in time of peace, and only at the rate of one million (or rather more) each year, it is more than probable, that we shall not have paid off, before another war comes, as many millions as will be expended in two or three years of war, or perhaps in one year of war. Consequently, if we contract debts fast, and discharge them slow, the nations must soon be bankrupt.
CHARLES STANHOPE
Observations on mr. Pitt's plan for the reduction of the national debt
The National Debt is therefore nothing else than a system of pensions or annuities. Well might such a system occur to Governments, accustomed to reward warriors, statesmen and other public servants with pensions; and no wonder, that in times of need they should discover that those who stayed at home at ease might, by a pecuniary service, be equally entitled to a proportionate reward with their more brilliant compeers. But to tell a man, who perhaps had toiled hard enough for his little capital, that in parting with it to the Government, he became a pensioner to them, an odious pensioner, would certainly not greatly tempt him to part with his money for such a title; and therefore, probably, arose that modification of things, or rather, of names, at present recognized in the money market. Such a man is now a stock holder, not a pensioner! His pension or annuity is interest; the Government is his debtor; and when it sells annuities to the public, contracts a loan.
WILLIAM ARTHUR CHADWICK
The National Debt No Debt at All
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
Ability
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; 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 burden, which we ourselves ought to bear.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
letter to Robert Morris, April 30, 1781