“Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value”

United States Senator Joe Biden said on the presidential campaign trail in 2007:
 
“As my Dad used to say, ‘Do not tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.’”
 
Biden repeated the line frequently, even as vice president during his re-election campaign in 2012. “Show me your checkbook and calendar, and I’ll tell you what your values are” is a similar expression to that of Joe Biden’s father.
 
 
The Philadelphia (PA) Jewish Voice (June 2007)
In Their Own Words
Remarks by Senator Joe Biden
(...)
As my Dad used to say, “Do not tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.”
 
Google Groups: alt.politics.bush
The Sunday Democartic Debate
middle class warrior
11/18/07
My favorite quote came form Joe Biden. He pointed out his father always said, “Don’t tell me about your values. Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.”
   
So true!!
 
New York (NY) Times 
TEXT
Biden’s Remarks on McCain’s Policies
Published: September 15, 2008
Following are remarks of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. in St. Clair Shores, Mich., on Monday, as provided by the Obama-Biden campaign.
(...)
My dad used to have an expression: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
 
Google Books
Death and Taxes:
Sources of Democratic Military Aggression
By Jonathan D. Caverle
Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Microform
2009
Pg. 300:
Early in the Cold War Bernard Brodie (1959) noted that “strategy wears a dollar sign,” and Colin Powell’s maxim “show me your budget and I will show you your strategy,” indicates that not much has changed in fifty years.
 
Google Books
Dangerous Times?:
The International Politics of Great Power Peace
By Christopher J. Fettweis
Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press
2010
Pg. 178:
Vice President Joe Biden has said that his father taught him a lesson about priorities: “Don’t tell me what you value,” the elder Biden used to say, “show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
     
The Weekly Standard
Biden Invokes Paul Ryan’s Deceased Father to Question VP Candidate’s Values
2:09 PM, AUG 13, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER
(...)
“My dad used to have another saying, for real,” Biden said. “And, by the way, I’ve been saying this for 30 years. And I’m glad to see that Congressman Ryan likes his dad, too, and quotes his dad. I mean that sincerely. But my dad [had] a lot of wisdom. Every time someone tell you, say, ‘Look, let me tell you what’s important to me, what I value.’ My dad would go, ‘No, no. Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.’”
 
YouTube
Joe Biden: Show Me Your Budget And I’ll Tell You What You Value
NRCC Communications
Published on Mar 8, 2013
A common refrain for Vice President Biden last year was “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.”
   
Google Groups: world_wide_with_god_minstry
VA Official: Funding Request Reflects Commitment to Vets
American Forces Press Service
4/11/13
04/11/2013 02:03 PM CDT
VA Official: Funding Request Reflects Commitment to Vets
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
(...)
Tommy Sowers, assistant VA secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, recognized strong support for veterans programs that continues to cross party lines, even in tough budget times.
 
“Veterans and veterans issues [have] been something Congress has been able to come together on,” he said during an interview last week with American Forces Press Service.
 
“In Washington, one of the maxims is, ‘Show me your budget and I will tell you what you care about,’” Sowers said. “And if you look at the budgets of these Congresses, this president, and what they have fought for, America cares about their veterans.”
 
Minneapolis, MN—Mayor Betsy Hodges
2015 Budget Address: “Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value”
August 14, 2014
(...)
As Joe Biden once said, “Don’t tell me what you value; show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”