"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." --James Madison
"I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity, and such spending would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded." --Franklin Pierce
"I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds. ... I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."--Grover Cleveland
I'm a conservative, and I think everybody should have free drugs and stuff, and that government should fund starving artists. --George W. Bush