The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be  refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be  tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on  public assistance.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 b.c.)
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America  arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of  honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.
John Adams, Second President of the United States (1797–1801)