Mitt Romney Quotes

The debate on how to shrink the federal government is at the core of our problem of government not doing its job.

You know, it doesn't take a genius in the private sector to know that you can save literally hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending if you can make it more responsive. That's the main job.

Every government program needs to be more efficient. Instead of pointing out how other programs can tighten their belts, every program administrator must look inward to save money.

Instead of raising taxes as some would insist, we need to reduce waste and inefficiency in government.

You know, in a workplace, when you shrink the size of a workforce, there is pain there. But there is no question: we have a government that we can no longer afford. That is the cold, hard fact. So we have to make this more efficient. We have to sunset programs that no longer work. We have to eliminate waste and fraud. We must do this.

At a time when we're having to take such difficult decisions about how to cut back without damaging the things that matter the most, we should strain every sinew to cut error, waste and fraud.

From cutting back on state contracts to reducing the number of state cars, We're making state government smaller, smarter, more efficient, and more accountable.

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.

Staff expands to fill the office space available.... The basic obligation of Congress is to the tax payers, not to its own creature comforts.

One of the hardest areas is duplication; everyone knows there's lots of duplication in government. But when you ask someone, 'OK, name two programs that are duplicative,' typically there's a long pause.

As far as cutting jobs, you could cut whole agencies out of the federal government and not miss them.

For those of us who want to accomplish something for the country, we need to come up with a list ... of anti-spending reforms which are locked into place so we are dramatically lowering the appetite of the federal government over the future.

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.

It's all right to agree or disagree on the balanced budget amendment. It's all right to talk about how we're going to appropriate.

In my political career, I'd like to see a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

The Tea Party knows that continuing to delay charting a course to spending reform hurts everybody.

As the President reviewed the state of the union and unveiled his second-term agenda, he fell short of adequately explaining how he intends to set America back on the course of fiscal responsibility and secure the fiscal health of the nation.

Make no mistake: I will work with both Democrats and Republicans to cut wasteful spending and reduce our debt in a balanced, responsible way.

Laying the groundwork for smaller, smarter government, especially at the federal level, is going to be tough. But it is essential for getting us back on the path to long-term prosperity.

When Bill Clinton was in town, he sent over a balanced budget.

I went through all my electric bills, the water bills, the phone bills, elevator contracts, and I found enough wasteful spending without reducing any programs anywhere, without reducing any services, I found enough wasteful spending to pay my entire salary for three years.

What you really want to do is sit down and find a place that you can control government spending and raise more revenue.

Defense leaders should be searching for ways to reform out-of-date procurement processes, to collapse layers of Pentagon bureaucracy, and to restrain the growth in personnel and benefits costs. A critical first step in that process should be to conduct a full Pentagon audit to determine how DOD spends taxpayer dollars.

The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.

In coming to the Congress as a new Member and becoming a fellow Blue Dog, we have had an opportunity to share and really spend a great deal of time in examining the challenges that our Nation finds itself in in getting its fiscal house in order.