Fiorello H. La Guardia Quotes

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

Yes, we can pay the interest on the debt. We can renew the $500 billion worth of bonds that are coming due. We can mail out our Social Security checks. We can make sure those Medicare claims are honored. We can pay our military. We can protect our veterans. But when you get beyond that, the soup gets a little thin.

I am not one of those who believe that we are bound to vote supplies to cover a deficiency in the treasury whenever called on, without investigating the causes which occasioned it.

It is past time for Republican leadership to answer for record deficits and reckless spending, both in Iraq and in the U.S. It's time for a plan to bring our troops home.

There is a very serious fiscal-policy question of, 'Are we running our overall fiscal policy such that we as a government can pay our bills?'

While restoring a sense of fiscal discipline to Congress is a top priority, infrastructure spending is an important and necessary task of government. Our nation's long-term debt requires us to prioritize and economize with every tax dollar.

A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation.

The Treasury has enough trouble with forecasts even when they are trying to get them right.

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

Remember that every dollar spent by the federal government is spent in somebody's district.

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.

Government ... simply has no bottom line.

We, in a sense, are taking back Uncle Sam's checkbook.

I think proper to take notice, that a Nation must look upon a foreign Debt, as part of its All; which, tough negative, acts positively on that Nation, and, according to the Rules of this system, as long as both the Confidence and Fear of Strangers keep them in a balance. But when those two Passions fly from their Equilibrium, the Debt acts beyond the Rules, in proportion to the Distance of that Equilibrium, and to the Largeness of the Debt. Thus is an indebted Nation not only obliged to keep those strange Creditors out of its own Labor, but also its Coin and Bullion are ever subject to their Passions and Occasions; they having it in their power, at will, irregularly to turn the Balance.

What would be better is to discipline our lawmakers in Sacramento so that they do not spend more money than they have.

A national debt, properly funded and serviced, can be a potent instrument of national policy.

The single biggest threat to our national security is our debt.

Government does not have basic business sense.

Someone should put up a chart for Congress showing the difference between millions, billions, and trillions. Our problems are in trillions and Congress is arguing about millions.

Congress is not an ATM

The United States is spending $6 billion a year and deserves to get a lot more than it is getting.

If the Senate can't perform its most basic responsibilities, I worry about how we're going to make the tough decisions and do the hard work that will be necessary to get our country on a path to fiscal solvency.

I'm gonna watch the taxpayers' money like I was elected to do.

I always think a debt ceiling is a good tool to carry something.

We must cut federal spending - every wasted dollar, every low priority program, and every unconstitutional overreach - every day.