Michael Madigan Quotes

Arizona faces many challenges ahead. None is more important or more pressing than passing a new state budget.

We are going to have to make some very difficult choices, because state government cannot continue to spend more than it takes in.

In the budget, the president will call for a five-year freeze on discretionary spending other than for national security. This will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade and bring this category of spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.

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

The cold harsh reality is that we have to balance the budget.

Not in the constitution, but I would propose a law to the French parliament that provides for reducing the budget deficit year by year, until we have reached a balanced budget by 2017.

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

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

We must take away the government's credit card. With limits on both tax revenue and borrowing, the Federal government would finally be forced to get serious about spending cuts.

Our priority must be to build a path towards balancing the budget, and we cannot tolerate growing deficits.

Under President Obama, we have spent more money - he has spent more money than any other president in this history, actually, the combined total from Washington up to George W. Bush. President Obama has racked up more spending, $1 trillion deficits. And it's time that he join us in this effort to get our fiscal house in order.

Even with not having a balanced budget at this time, I support tax cuts. That will help limit spending.

States, virtually all of them, have a constitutional requirement to operate on a balanced budget.

I am a deficit hawk.

It is admitted on all sides that we must equalize the revenue and expenditures. The scheme of borrowing to make up an increasing deficit must, in the end, if continued, prove ruinous.

While the deficit and debt are serious problems, I oppose solving these problems by raising taxes.

First of all, I don't like to speak about austerity. I'd prefer to speak of fiscal discipline. Fiscal discipline, in the end, amounts to austerity if it is not accompanied by other policies.

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 three main political parties all agree the UK deficit is high and needs to be brought down. All agree that it is easier to get a deficit down if you have faster growth, cutting unemployment-related costs and raising revenues.

We can't continue to spend where there isn't any money.

In my view, the biggest challenge facing this country is that we are not living within our means. Spending cuts can only get us halfway there.

We have to cut spending. We're - the thing is out of control.

We need to resist the temptation to create more entitlements and more entitlements, which is one of the reasons we are heading recklessly toward fiscal crisis.

It's no accident that Montana is the most fiscally prudent state in the nation.