Mark Kirk Quotes

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

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

I, for one, believe that revenue has to increase. I think every American would pay more if they thought spending was going to be cut and the budget brought to balance.

You eventually have to figure out how to balance the books. So that's the reason I gave up my day job to come do this was to go fight to create the space where spending matches America's capacity to tax, and that means economic growth and a smaller, humbler federal government.

The President has a short time to let people know that he is serious about getting spending under control.

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.

I'm coming to Washington, D.C., to do the people's work. And the people's work has to do with reducing spending and cutting budgets and, and trying to get a grip on the size of government.

Near-term deficits are temporary and manageable if - and only if - we keep spending in check, the tax burden low and the economy growing.

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.

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

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.

I was the chairman of the House Budget Committee and one of the chief architects the last time we balanced a budget, and it was the first time we had done it since man walked on the moon. We had a $5 trillion surplus and we cut taxes.

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

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.

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

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

If you ask people do you think that government should spend less money than what it takes in, most people agree with that.

When Mr. Obama entered office, he said all the right things about getting Washington spending under control. He even promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Obviously, that didn't happen.

I think you're going to see a number of Democrats that do want to see us grapple with spending.

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.

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

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.

Like Ike [President Eisenhower] did. Talk economy and then spend away.