Thomas Paine Quote

The burden of the national debt consists not in its being so many millions, or so many hundred millions, but in the quantity of taxes collected every year to pay the interest. If this quantity continue the same, the burden of the national debt is the same to all intents and purposes, be the capital more or less.

The Political Writings of Thomas Paine: To which is Prefixed a Brief Sketch of the Author's Life (ed. 1835)