"Listen to Professor Peter Drucker analyze the problem of government today: "There is mounting evidence that government is big rather than strong; that it is fat and flabby rather than powerful; that it costs a great deal but does not achieve much .... Indeed, government is sick--and just at the time when we need a strong, healthy, and vigorous government." The problem has not been a lack of good intentions, and not merely a lack of money. Methods inherited from the thirties proved to be out of date in the sixties. Structures put together in the thirties broke down under the load of the sixties. Overcentralized, over-bureaucratized, the Federal Government became unresponsive as well as inefficient. In their struggle to keep up, States and localities found the going increasingly difficult. In the space of only 10 years, State and local expenditures rose by two and a half times---from $44 billion in 1958 to $108 billion in 1968. States alone have had to seek more than 200 tax increases in the past 8 years. You know--you as Governors--and I know, that simply piling tax on tax is not the long range solution to the problems we face together. We have to devise a new way to make our revenue system meet the needs of the seventies. We have to put the money where the problems are, and we have to get a dollar's worth of return for a dollar spent. Our new strategy for the seventies begins with the reform of government: overhauling its structure; pruning out those programs that have failed or that have outlived their time; ensuring that its delivery systems actually deliver the intended services to the intended beneficiaries; gearing its programs to the concept of social investment; focusing its activities not only on tomorrow, but on the day after tomorrow. This must be a cooperative venture among governments at all levels, because it centers on what I have called the "New Federalism"--in which power, funds, and authority are channeled increasingly to those governments that are closest to the people. The essence of the New Federalism is to help regain control of our national destiny by returning a greater share of control to State and local governments and to the people. This in turn requires constant attention to raising the quality of government at all levels."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Presidents of the United StatesPoliticians from CaliforniaQuakersUnited States presidential candidates, 1972United States presidential candidates, 1968
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (9 January 1913 – 22 April 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a Republican U.S. representative and senator from California from 1947 to 1952 and as the 36th vice president of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
318 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Nixon →
Related Quotes
"This administration has proved that it is utterly incapable of cleaning out the corruption which has completely erode…"
"Isn't it better to talk about the relative merits of washing machines than the relative strength of rockets? Isn't th…"
"Now, some may ask why we don't get rid of the bases, since the Soviet Government declares today that it has only peac…"
"What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our h…"
"What are our schools for if not for indoctrination against communism?"
"That's what we have and that's what we owe. It isn't very much but Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime th…"
"Well, then, some of you will say, and rightly, "Well, what did you use the fund for, Senator? Why did you have to hav…"
"If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest shopping center in the world, the Lloyd Shoppin…"
"I leave you gentleman now. You will now write it; you will interpret it; that's your right. But as I leave you I want…"
"I think most Americans understood that the My Lai massacre was not representative of our people, of the war we were f…"