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

(L) Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th president, wrote that the American people bear some responsibility for keeping national extravagance in check. (R) Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was devoted to fiscal responsiblity in government. Everett Collection/Shutterstock

“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.”—President Calvin Coolidge, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925.

In August 2023, when we mark the centennial of Coolidge’s ascendance to the presidency upon the unexpected death of Warren Harding, we should celebrate his devotion to economy in government—and not just that he talked about it, but mainly because he delivered on it.