Ted Budd

North Carolina · born or raisedBorn 1971

United States Senator from North Carolina since 2023

Born in Winston-Salem
Studied at Wake Forest University
Studied at Appalachian State University
Studied at Wake Forest University School of Business
Studied at Davie County High School

politician, business executive

Quotations with a citation

In the United States, we’ve long had a free market system, but that system is not what it once was. Total government spending–state, federal, and local–has grown in real terms by more than 400 percent since 1965. Government spending is now one-third of the economy. As the private economy retreats, the importance of a new marketplace grows: the political marketplace. Products and services are no longer judged according to their usefulness to the economy at large–they’re judged according to whether or not they are politically useful or connected. The political marketplace is the marketplace of crony capitalism. Its supply and demand are lobbying expenditures and the resulting federal program or carve out. Its actors are not firms, but the political class and the politicians they influence

While I always wait for the final details of any piece of legislation before deciding whether to support it or not, the framework released last week emphasized two main goals that I wholeheartedly support: economic growth and simplicity.