George Osborne Quotes

But the debt limit obviously is something that needs to and will be passed. That is not inconsistent with a process and a belief that we have to get significant deficit reduction.

Like Ike [President Eisenhower] did. Talk economy and then spend away.

We should reduce total government spending as a percentage of the economy. The left wants to focus on the deficit so they can take us away from the focus on spending as a percentage of the economy.

We are worried about the size of the deficit, which is why the president is pleased that the House and Senate have followed his lead in cutting the deficit in half over the next five years.

Of course we have to address the deficit if we win.

No one in the modern history of this country, no president, has done more to move toward a balanced budget than has President Bill Clinton.

The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.

Sequestration was not designed to be anyone's ideal method for getting our hands around government spending, and it certainly isn't mine.

It's insane to try to balance the budget.

I am a deficit hawk.

The right way to deal with a budget problem that was years in the making is by formulating a credible plan to reduce the deficit over time and as the economy is able to withstand the necessary fiscal belt-tightening. That is what President Obama is doing.

Monetary discipline forces fiscal discipline on the politicians as well.

The deficit only became a big problem in the Reagan-Bush years. For 12 years, Republican presidents talked about balancing the budget, but failed to propose one.

We had a $10 billion budget deficit when we got here in January of 2003. We cut that budget deficit; we did not raise taxes; we came back in '05, and we had an $8 billion surplus. That's how fast it can happen.

The President has a short time to let people know that he is serious about getting spending under control.

The first order of business is the elimination of the annual deficit.

My budget is similar to the Penny Plan, which cuts 1 percent a year for five or six years and balances the budget.

In addition to reining in spending, taxes, tolls and fees, let's rein in how much the state borrows.

It's all right to agree or disagree on the balanced budget amendment. It's all right to talk about how we're going to appropriate.

We'll set our approach to borrowing, to spending, to taxation, in a sensible way on a sensible timescale.

The American people reject the idea of giving Washington a blank check to increase the debt limit.

What we do want to see is reforms that are going to have a permanent effect on the budget deficit.

The American people know that we cannot spend our way to prosperity.

Memo to Congress: America's problem is not that government is too small. It's the spending, stupid!

Defense spending as a share of the economy dropped significantly during the early 1990s, and that was one of the things, along with other policy changes, that put us back on the path to a balanced budget.