The problem is that when government controls the economy those who can influence government keep winning and everybody else just stays the same.

In a very weak economy when you say 'cut government spending ' what you mean is you're laying off school teachers and you're de-funding various programs that put money into the economy. This means you have more unemployed people that then draw unemployment benefits and don't pay taxes.

We believe a renewed commitment to limited government will unshackle our economy and create millions of new jobs and opportunities for all people of every background to succeed and prosper. Under this approach the spirit of initiative - not political clout - determines who succeeds.

We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government.

I would cap the amount of federal government can spend at 20 percent of the economy. Bring it back to 20 percent or lower. And say we are not going to spend above that level. Democrats they want to raise your taxes and spend more and more and turn us into an economy which is no longer driven by the private sector.

Government is taking 40 percent of the GDP. And that's at the state local and federal level. President Obama has taken government spending at the federal level from 20 percent to 25 percent. Look at some point you cease being a free economy and you become a government economy. And we've got to stop that.

The Great Depression like most other periods of severe unemployment was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.

I spent my whole life in the private sector 25 years in the private sector. I understand that when government takes more money out of the hands of people it makes it more difficult for them to buy things. If they can't buy things the economy doesn't grow. If the economy doesn't grow we don't put Americans to work.

If you like small government you need to work hard at having a strong national defense that is not so militant. Personal liberty is the purpose of government to protect liberty - not to run your personal life not to run the economy and not to pretend that we can tell the world how they ought to live.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. And if it stops moving subsidize it.