Joni Ernst Quotes

Let us have the courage to stop borrowing to meet continuing deficits. Revenues must cover expenditures by one means or another. Any government, like any family, can, for a year, spend a little more than it earns. But you know and I know that a continuation of the habit means the poor house.

What I wanted to do was see if we couldn't balance the budget.

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

Without a doubt, first thing we should do is clean up our fiscal house, and that starts with balancing our budgets and digging out of this red ink. We cannot expect to continue in this fashion and remain the leader of the free world.

It's insane to try to balance the budget.

I'm for a balanced budget now.

The American people are tired of the out-of-control spending, and they want Washington to get their act in order and stop spending money we don't have.

If you don't get spending under control, eventually you're going to have a big tax increase.

But the debt limit obviously is something that needs to and will be passed. That is not inconsistent with a process and a belief that we have to get significant deficit reduction.

Monetary discipline forces fiscal discipline on the politicians as well.

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

Washington has to stop spending money we don’t have for projects we don’t want.

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.

I am prepared to discuss the things that I believe we need to do not just to raise the debt limit. Raising the debt limit is the easiest thing. That's one vote away. The hard thing is to show the world we are serious about putting our spending in order so we can show people we'll able to pay our bills down the road.

If you force legislators to balance, at the end of the day, if it has to be balanced, then they step up and they become legislators and can find out where to cut.

Only one thing can save this country, and that's to get a handle on this deficit and debt issue.

It is important for India to stay the course on fiscal consolidation.

In the private sector we budget for rainy days or offset unexpected expenditures with spending cuts and the same principles should apply to Congress.

People understand that you have to do difficult things to sort out our own public finances.

To be clear, aiming to reduce the national debt in the long term and running small surpluses when the economy is operating close to full capacity is what I mean when I talk about seeking to 'balance the books' - a sensible approach.

But I think the global economy will understand that the United States has the ability to meet its obligations. But it's not going to be able to do it over the long term if we can't control the growth of government.

We Hoosiers hold to some quaint notions. Some might say we 'cling' to them, though not out of fear or ignorance. We believe in paying our bills. We have kept our state in the black throughout the recent unpleasantness, while cutting rather than raising taxes, by practicing an old tribal ritual - we spend less money than we take in.

All the states are required, either by constitution or by statute, to have balanced budgets - they're not able to print money. So they have to focus on establishing priorities.

Cutting budget deficits can never be just an exercise in economics.

If it took multiple debt ceiling hikes, I'd rather achieve the savings.