Marshall Sanford: “Rick Towne, who runs a small auto supply and parts store in Charleston, SC, came by my office yesterday. His belief was…”

“Rick Towne, who runs a small auto supply and parts store in Charleston, SC, came by my office yesterday. His belief was that this budget was about creating, not destroying. In fact, he talked about how is it that we get the economy growing again so that middle class, hard-working families are not hurt the way they are today? His belief was a fairly simple two-part formula. He said first, you got to get government out of my pocket; and, second, you got to get government out of my way. I think that this budget reflects that. There is a saying back home farmers use, you can only squeeze so much blood out of a turnip that talks about taxes, and I think we all know the detrimental effect of taxes on economic growth. So instead, I would like to focus on the second part of his formula, which was getting government out of his way. My mom used to say that too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. Similarly, Ben Franklin urged moderation in all things. Well, there was a recent joint economic report that said if government spends too much money, it actually begins to hurt the economy, actually begins to be a drag on the economy.”