- A President Who Warned Americans What Extravagant Federal Spending Would Do to Character
- Grover Cleveland was a man who said what he meant and meant what he said, come Hell or high water.
"...Cleveland won the White House in 1884 on a platform of restraining federal spending and corruption.
...A major reason he came out of retirement to run again in 1892 was the reckless spending of the Harrison administration.
He beat Harrison that year and became the only man ever elected to non-consecutive terms (1885-89 and 1893-97).
- ...In 1901, the federal government spent half a billion dollars over the whole year, roughly equivalent in real terms to around $12 billion today.
- Washington spends that much now in about half a day.
Lest you think the feds were misers in 1901, ponder what Cleveland had to say in his article that year:
"Probably no one will have the hardihood to deny that the cost of our Government is excessive and wasteful, and that for this condition the heedless neglect and indifference of our people are in some degree responsible…
If the aggregate mass of our people are at all blameworthy on account of the present advanced stage of public prodigality, it is largely because they overlooked and tolerated its small beginnings, when at all times they should have been vigilant and uncompromising.
A self-ruling people…should constantly remember that nothing multiplies itself more abundantly than national extravagance, and that neither an individual nor a popular government can easily correct or check habits of waste."...
No comments:
Post a Comment