Jennifer Granholm Quotes

I was the governor that drew a tough, tough straw. I was governor during the worst recession since the 1930s, and I had to cut $5 billion from the 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.

I don't buy into this, 'Oh, poor us. We've got tough budget problems.'

We have major fiscal problems on our hand.

Difficult economic conditions require us to face difficult economic choices.

There's only so much that you can tighten your belt before you squeeze yourself to death.

You don't have to look any farther than the state of California to know that having a 'Gordian knot' of conflicting measures acting upon on your state budget is a recipe for disaster.

There is going to have to be austerity in the state of Kentucky.

While President Obama shirks his responsibility to advance solutions to our fiscal challenges, he can no longer hide from the merciless math of the balance sheet. Conservatives have made certain of that.

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

Bush may be a strong leader in the war on terrorism, but on budget deficits he is missing-in-action.

I said we are going to balance an $11 billion budget deficit in a $29 billion budget, so by percentage, the largest budget deficit in America, by percentage, larger than California, larger than New York, larger than Illinois. And we're going to balance that without raising taxes on the people of the state of New Jersey.

We're all concerned about the budget. We're all concerned about what's happening financially in our country. There's no question about it. Congress is working day and night. In fact, every time I go home the lights are on at the top of the Capitol.

However, the economics of our business continued to deteriorate. We barely escaped bankruptcy a year ago, and in the aftermath of that escape we had to make some even tougher decisions.

Look, I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast. I mean, the kinds of spending cuts we're talking about just right now are $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget.

Having said that, I believe we must not compound the natural disaster of Katrina by creating a fiscal disaster in Congress - it is our duty to ensure that we reign in other government spending in any event, and especially in this time of national emergency.

Money is a never-ending problem.

Look, the, the - this country has not lived within its means for a very long time, and, and the truth is we're going to have to take our medicine.

We're on the verge of a financial collapse unless we balance the budget, and that means some really, really tough decisions.

As Secretary of Defense my job would be much easier if I didn't have to put up with [budget] cuts.

Our national finances are in a ruinous state.

The deficit had become a symbol of our inability to control and manage the cost of government.

Can there be a more lamentable picture than that of a Chancellor of the Exchequer seated on an empty chest by a pool of bottomless deficiency fishing for a budget?

We are the ones that are trying to get Washington spending under control so it can live within its means.

Instead of more talk about salmon and high-speed rails, more criticism of the Supreme Court or more praise for the Soviet's Sputnik mission - President Obama should use his State of the Union Address to tell the American people the truth about the fundamental financial challenges our country faces.