Franklin D. Roosevelt on Government spending
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“Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.”
During the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt warned against unchecked government spending and mounting deficits, foreshadowing potential national bankruptcy.
“If the Nation is living within its income, its credit is good. If, in some crises, it lives beyond its income for a year or two, it can usually borrow temporarily at reasonable rates. But if, like a spendthrift, it throws discretion to the winds, and is willing to make no sacrifice at all in spending; if it extends its taxing to the limit of the people's power to pay and continues to pile up deficits, then it is on the road to bankruptcy.”