Francois Hollande Quotes

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

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.

We can't continue to tax, borrow, and spend at the rates that we are, and it's just got to be stopped.

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.

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

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

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

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

The right way to deal with a budget problem that was years in the making is by formulating a credible plan to reduce the deficit over time and as the economy is able to withstand the necessary fiscal belt-tightening. That is what President Obama is doing.

Well, a deficit reflects an imbalance between spending and revenue, and so narrowing it requires acting on one, the other or both.

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.

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.

While there are no easy solutions to this problem, the Deficit Reduction Act gets us started in the right direction by beginning with the most obvious, commonsense reforms to save taxpayer dollars.

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 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.

Tonight I come before you to announce that the Federal Deficit will be simply zero.

Without deficit reduction, we cannot have sustained economic growth.

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

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.

Fiscal discipline is a priority in Romania, and we have already proven we are committed and able to make real progress in this area.

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.

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.

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

Memo to Congress: America's problem is not that government is too small. It's the spending, stupid!

Defense spending as a share of the economy dropped significantly during the early 1990s, and that was one of the things, along with other policy changes, that put us back on the path to a balanced budget.