This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it’s all checks and no balances.

Gracie Allen’s line is a compact piece of political wordplay: it pivots from the constitutional idea of “checks and balances” (institutions restraining one another) to the everyday meaning of “checks” as payments. The joke implies that government has drifted from principled oversight toward spending, patronage, or financial self-interest—producing plenty of “checks” but little “balance” in the sense of restraint, equilibrium, or accountability. Like much of Allen’s humor, the quip sounds breezy and commonsensical while delivering a pointed critique: a healthy republic requires counterweights, not merely the machinery (or money) of government.