Politics & Power Quote by Sonny Perdue

Perdue’s line is a neat political judo move: it takes a private-sector truism and flips it into a defense of the public sector’s paradox. In business, falling profits usually mean customers are walking away. In government, he argues, strain is the signal, not the failure: recession, disaster, and job loss don’t shrink the state’s workload, they swell it. The intent is partly explanatory (why budgets and caseloads balloon when revenues fall) and partly absolving (don’t read fiscal red ink as incompetence; read it as triage).

The subtext is where the quote does its real work. “Demand for our services” recasts government as a provider responding to consumer need, borrowing market language to make bureaucracy sound reactive and legitimate. It’s a subtle inoculation against anti-government critiques that treat rising spending as self-indulgence. If demand is rising, then expansion isn’t mission creep; it’s customer service.

Context matters: Perdue’s career sits in the modern conservative ecosystem that praises business efficiency while governing in a world where voters still expect FEMA, unemployment insurance, food assistance, and agricultural supports to show up when life goes sideways. The quote acknowledges that tension without conceding ideology. It’s also a quiet reminder that government is the backstop for risks the market can’t price humanely or quickly. The rhetorical trick is that it invites empathy for the institution by describing it as overrun, not overreaching.