Mitt Romney Quotes

I did not come into government to win an award as the great accountant in the sky and balance budgets.

All the states are required, either by constitution or by statute, to have balanced budgets - they're not able to print money. So they have to focus on establishing priorities.

I think the whole issue of a debt ceiling makes no sense to me whatsoever. Anybody who is remotely adroit at arithmetic doesn't need a debt ceiling to tell you where you are.

My goal was to do the best job I could in governing the state of Wisconsin, in some cases making very tough decisions to have to bring our spending in line with the resources we had at the state level.

The failure to work out sensible budgets makes it impossible for government agencies to make long-term plans, and instead leaves them scrambling to spend money in the short term.

What's really important to me is that we have fiscally responsible balanced budgets.

Remarkably, there are leaders in Washington who don't understand why it's so important for us to have a budget.

Unlike the federal government, most states don't have the option of running a deficit.

Rather than waiting to restore fiscal responsibility after we pass legislation, we must work to ensure we remain committed to it as we draft legislation.

There is a difficult leap between talking about balancing the budget and actually doing it.

Our national leaders could learn some good habits and important lessons from city hall to take the place of the various gimmicks being used in Washington to duck federal budget responsibility.

We can't let government make long-term commitments that it may not be able to keep.

I've got an extreme bias toward governors... they know what it's like to make hard decisions. They know what it's like to actually balance a budget - have a budget, first of all, and have a balanced budget.

Congress must do what we said we would and find ways to pay for bills we propose so we don't leave future generations mired in debt.

Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets.

What I wanted to do was see if we couldn't balance the budget.

The important aspect as we look at this budget, and as we look at previous budgets, is the budget system - what I'm trying to get at is changing budgeting itself in Wisconsin.

Well, first of all, let's go right to it. We're going to balance the budget. We should live within our own means, and we should read the bills and work with the American people.

We can't have deficit spending in Texas. You have to balance your budget every two years.

If you don't get spending under control, eventually you're going to have a big tax increase.

Governing isn't as easy as you think. Many of you have taken pledges that are contradictory - to balance the budget and cut taxes, for example. You must be honest about the numbers, since our annual deficit now exceeds all discretionary spending combined.

Our system of keeping the federal government's books is a monument to the creativity of mankind ... We've cut government spending for 15 years in a row, and yet have spent more money in each of those years.

Government ... simply has no bottom line.

Let us act with our eyes open. We are going to have a deficit next fiscal year and the year after that.

It is dangerous to play politics with the Budget.