An Independence Day Lesson from Grover Cleveland

July 4, 2023 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Calvin Coolidge probably deserves a prize for the best July 4th speech.But another president also deserves some Independence Day recognition.

I’ve previously written about Grover Cleveland’s sound thinking about fiscal issues.

Remarkably, his frugality even extended to opposing the use of taxpayer money to celebrate the Declaration of Independence.

In a column for the Foundation for Economic Education, Larry Reed explains that this happened a few years before he reached the White House.

When the city council of Buffalo, New York, sent the mayor a measure to fund Fourth of July celebrations in 1882, conventional wisdom suggested that approving it was the politically wise and patriotic thing to do. …The conventional wisdom underestimated the mayor. He vetoed the appropriation, and proudly took the heat for it. After a year in the job in which he earned the title, “the veto mayor,” he moved on to become “the veto governor” of the State of New York and finally, “the veto president” of the United States. His name was Grover Cleveland. On the matter of minding the till and pinching pennies on behalf of the taxpayer, he puts to shame the great majority of public officials here and everywhere. …This was a man unafraid to draw the line on public spending for two principal reasons: 1) Government should not be a grab bag of goodies for whatever cause somebody thinks is “good” and 2) Failure to keep government spending in check encourages politicians to buy votes and corrupt the political process. …He once expressed the wish that he would be remembered more for the laws he killed than the ones he signed. He still holds the record for the most vetoes of any American president in two terms (584 in all).

Wow. What a contrast with America’s recent presidents, all of whom (including the current resident of the White House) have enthusiastically spent other people’s money.

No wonder the late, great Walter Williams admired President Cleveland.

P.S. I joked in 2011 that our friends on the left seem more interested in celebrating Dependence Day. Obama then turned satire into reality the following year. The Babylon Bee then shared some Dependence Day satire in 2020, which Biden then turned into reality.