Paul Harvey

What have you got to lose, you say? Why shouldn’t I take their offer of free medicine, money for work I don’t do, or crops I don’t grow? Why not?

Here’s why not, and don’t ever forget this. “If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”

Paul Harvey, Remember These Things (1952). This is the first known printing of the adage about big government. It has been attributed to many who have repeated it, including Gerald Ford, and misattributed to others who did not likely say it, including Thomas Jefferson.