Kevin McCarthy Quotes

Sound public finances are the essential foundation on which to construct a better-balanced economy from the wreckage of Labour's boom and bust. But it is economic growth that will create the jobs and the prosperity for the future and enable us to pay down Labour's debt.

If we make the tough decisions now, we will be one year ahead of 80 percent of the states in the race to economic growth. If we fail to act, we will fall even further behind... by going first, we can become first.

There is only so much pain voters will tolerate. And there is insufficient reason to believe that today’s austerity will bring tomorrow’s prosperity.

Fiscal discipline can turn the economy around.

Past experience with fiscal austerity at home and overseas strongly suggests that it is best for the economy's long-run performance to restrain government spending rather than raise taxes.

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.

Reducing debt through budgetary consolidation is essential to restoring Europe's financial health.

I will work to restore fiscal responsibility to our country's budget and to provide for a more robust economy.

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.

I think achieving a higher fiscal stability is also a very important condition for restoring an environment which is conducive to growth.

I think where I differ a little bit, we absolutely have to think about the deficit looking down the road. And certainly that's something the president has said that we need to, as the economy recovers, have a plan in place for getting it down.

We agree with Simpson and Bowles and others who have looked at this. What's necessary is to stabilize the debt and then work from there. You can't balance the budget in the short term because to do that would be to ratchet down the economy.

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.

We have a spending problem, not a taxing problem. The less we spend, the more jobs we have the potential to create.

Well, I think the president has clearly submitted us a tight budget, but it's what's called for if we're going to get spending under control and keep the economy moving in the right direction, with economic growth and job creation activity.

We cannot cut our way to prosperity.

Without deficit reduction, we cannot have sustained economic growth.

The harsh reality is that we simply cannot tax our way out of our overspending and debt problem. We need a balanced approach that includes both a stronger economy to generate new tax revenues and bipartisan guardrails, which will help ensure that future presidents and congresses spend within our means.

It certainly would be helpful going forward for deficit reduction efforts to focus on the medium term while not subtracting from the impetus we need to keep a fragile economy moving forward.

My highest priority is to make sure we get Americans back to work. And that we have rising incomes again and that we have a deficit reduction program in place that convinces the world that we're on track to having a balanced budget.

Look at what happened in the 1990s: when they balanced the federal budget, it was through growth in the economy and controlling spending.

You see, in government, people give you a mandate, and you've got to fulfil that. Ours is very clear. Fix our public finances and get our country working.

The purpose of Conservative Budgets is to empower the British people and revitalise the country.

Any move to reduce government spending is a positive for the economy.

Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.