Jim Lehrer Quotes

We are worried about the size of the deficit, which is why the president is pleased that the House and Senate have followed his lead in cutting the deficit in half over the next five years.

The polls are with us on this. They say the American people, more than anything, want to see spending cuts rather than tax increases.

I think to balance the budget, probably every federal department has to take cuts in my opinion.

It's going to be true that anything that reduces the federal deficit will have somebody unhappy.

As Vermont's senator and a member of the Budget Committee, I will not support a plan to reduce the deficit that does not call for shared sacrifice.

Of course we have to address the deficit if we win.

In the past, proactive fiscal polices almost always meant just more investment and an increase in the fiscal deficit.

To reduce deficit spending and our enormous debt, you reign in spending. You cut the budget. You don't take more from the private sector and grow government with it. And that's exactly what Obama has in mind with this expiration of Bush tax cuts proposal of his.

It's not easy cutting welfare bills. It's not easy cutting the deficit.

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.

If you could bring to me a majority of people to say that we're going to have $10 of spending cuts for $1 of revenue enhancement, put me in, coach.

The goal is to reduce the size and scope of government spending, not to focus on the deficit. The deficit is the symptom of the disease.

I personally don't believe we ought to be raising taxes or cutting spending, either one, until we get this economy off the ground. I'll pay more, but it won't solve the problem.

You just don't see people running through the streets to have the deficit cut.

You can always raise taxes on the rich, but that will not solve the deficit problem.

The first order of business is the elimination of the annual deficit.

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.

We can have tax cuts, but when we have tax cuts and do not have a surplus, the amount of the tax cut goes straight to the bottom line, adds to the deficit, and the deficit adds to the national debt, and sooner or later, the debt has to be paid.

We should reduce total government spending as a percentage of the economy. The left wants to focus on the deficit so they can take us away from the focus on spending as a percentage of the economy.

One of the reasons we don't have our deficit under control is because Republicans are wusses and won't tell their base a simple fact that everyone knows. We can't eliminate the deficit without raising some revenue... They're wusses.

I came to Congress to help reduce spending.

Will I obliterate national debt? Sure, why not?

Sequestration was not designed to be anyone's ideal method for getting our hands around government spending, and it certainly isn't mine.

We've unveiled the most comprehensive reform budget people have seen in a generation.

If you raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires, you'll do nothing to address the debt and the deficit. And the thing you might do is you might finally put this economy over another cliff. These millionaires and billionaires are the folks that try to create jobs and help grow the economy.