The saying is credited to Bert Lance, budget director under President Jimmy Carter. In May 1977 the magazine Nation’s Business quoted him: “That’s the trouble with government: Fixing things that aren’t broken and not fixing things that are broken.”
Lance did not invent the phrase. An aviation journal used “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” as an article title in September 1962. In 1976 a bank president quoted in the Atlanta Constitution called it “an old Cajun saying.”
In August 2025 the U.S. Office of Personnel Management still credited Lance. It explained the meaning: “effect change where required, but not to re-invent the wheel.”