“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.”

— Ronald Reagan

Joke during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California, as quoted by Leo E. Litwak in The New York Times Magazine (14 November 1965), p. 174 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50F13FC3B591B7A93C6A8178AD95F418685F9.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
As quoted in The Reagan Wit (1981) by Bill Adler, p. 30
1960s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other." by Ronald Reagan?

Ronald Reagan 264

American politician, 40th president of the United States (i… 1911–2004

Ronald Knox (1888–1957) English priest and theologian

Definition of a baby, quoted by Colin Blakemore in his 1976 Reith Lectures, Mechanics of the Mind
The earliest print occurrence is credited to Elizabeth I. Adamson in the July 1937 issue of Reader's Digest, according to Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/01/10/baby/#note-15186-10.
Disputed

“Love is an appetite which, like all other appetites, is destroyed for the moment by its gratification.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Preface
1900s, Getting Married (1908)

“Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 416.

“The earth has become one big village, with telephones laid on from one end to the other, and air transport, both speedy and safe.”

Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) writer and painter

America and Cosmic Man (New York: Doubleday, [1948] 1949) p. 21.

“In a political sense, there is one problem that currently underlies all of the others. That problem is making Government sufficiently responsive to the people. If we don't make government responsive to the people, we don't make it believable. And we must make government believable if we are to have a functioning democracy.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

Address at Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida (16 December 1971); published in Gerald R. Ford, Selected Speeches (1973) edited by Michael V. Doyle
1970s

“Distracting a politician from governing is like distracting a bear from eating your baby.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (1996)

“Our responsibility is one of decision — for to govern is to choose.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1962, Address at Independence Hall
Context: The necessity for comity between the National Government and the several States is an indelible lesson of our long history. Because our system is designed to encourage both differences and dissent, because its checks and balances are designed to preserve the rights of the individual and the locality against preeminent central authority, you and I, Governors, recognize how dependent we both are, one upon the other, for the successful operation of our unique and happy form of government. Our system and our freedom permit the legislative to be pitted against the executive, the State against the Federal Government, the city against the countryside, party against party, interest against interest, all in competition or in contention one with another. Our task — your task in the State House and my task in the White House — is to weave from all these tangled threads a fabric of law and progress. We are not permitted the luxury of irresolution. Others may confine themselves to debate, discussion, and that ultimate luxury — free advice. Our responsibility is one of decision — for to govern is to choose.

“Personal responsibility is a big idea about which little is known. It has received far less study than other key conservative tenets, like economic choice. This lack of attention is striking because personal responsibility is a defining assumption in American thought.”

Mark Riebling (1963) American writer

Personal Responsibility: How the Framers coined a phrase as they created a nation (2010)

“A new State of Israel with broad frontiers, strong and solid, with the authority of the Israel Government extending from the Jordan to the Suez Canal.”

Moshe Dayan (1915–1981) Israeli military leader and politician

Statement made in April 1973 from the peaks of Massada.
The Iron Wall (1999)

“The baby, a girl, is born at 6:24 a. m.
She weighs six pounds, ten ounces.
The mother takes the baby in her arms and asks her, "Who are you, my little one?"
And in response, this baby, who is Liz and not Liz at the same time, laughs.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.”

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