William D. Ford Quotes

If there is wasteful spending, I will not support it.

We need to increase education budgets.

As Secretary of Defense my job would be much easier if I didn't have to put up with [budget] cuts.

At a time of tight budgets, unless something is really broken and not working, they [his congressional colleagues] just don't get excited about it.

When efforts are made to shape policy based on budgets rather than the public good, then the needs of the people will not be met.

Government does not have a revenue problem; government has a spending problem. Government does not have a revenue problem; government has a priority problem. It is time that we begin to fine tune our focus and decide what the priority of government ought to be.

As Indiana's governor, I balanced eight budgets, never raised taxes, and left the largest surplus in state history. It wasn't always easy. Cuts had to be made and some initiatives deferred. Occasionally I had to say 'no.'

America has to ask itself not what it wants, but what it can afford.

The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.

If we can't find cuts in the defense budget, we're not looking carefully enough.

I personally do not worship at the alter of a balanced budget.

I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.

A budget in difficult times can and must serve the people for whom it is designed.

Economy in government does not mean spending little ... It means spending what you have and spending it well.

Fiscal conservatism means balancing budgets — not running deficits that the next generation can't afford. It means improving the efficiency of delivering services by finding innovative ways to do more with less. It means cutting taxes when possible and prudent to do so, raising them overall only when necessary to balance the budget, and only in combination with spending cuts. It means when you run a surplus, you save it; you don't squander it. And most importantly, being a fiscal conservative means preparing for the inevitable economic downturns — and by all indications, we've got one coming.

The revenue you take in should be enough to cover the revenue that you spend and go beyond that to get a reserve. In order to do that we [in California] need cuts and pension reforms, and taxes.

… bad times make for good policies, and good times make for bad policies.

I hate the idea of anyone thinking that I don't put a lot of thought about the cost to taxpayers. I make our ministers travel to events in vans to pool together.

When I was speaker in North Carolina, the state was gripped with a deficit, and we made a fundamental policy decision to adopt austerity budgets for four years.

I am a governor who left office with a smaller general fund budget than when we started.

We need to pass conservative policy. And we can only advance our values when we are united.

To simply argue that public spending must always go up and never be cut is irresponsible.

I think we have lost track of a core Republican principle of limited government and balancing budgets and restraining federal spending. We have got to change the system.

Disgracefully, the arts have too often borne the brunt of short-sighted cuts to educational budgets.

The people of Illinois sent me to Springfield to end the era of unbalanced budgets and runaway debt.