Nigel Lawson Quotes

I believe that a good portion will be in due time be returned, but I am certain that some of it will have to be placed on the profit and loss column of Uncle Sam's books. Let us understand that clearly now and not be deceived later. [He was right.]

Let us act with our eyes open. We are going to have a deficit next fiscal year and the year after that.

I will never consent to make our penal code the basis of our Ways and Means …

The CBO is the only group that makes the weatherman's ten-day forecast look like exact science. They seem to miss their projections with extreme regularity.

If done correctly, dynamic scoring will provide a more complete picture of Congress's actions. This is exactly the type of modeling the private sector uses, and advances in data collection and analysis create an opportunity for it to be employed accurately.

Alabama is better than to depend on gambling to fund its government.

I don't think we should run government based on economists' predictions.

Remarkably, there are leaders in Washington who don't understand why it's so important for us to have a budget.

It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it's an irresponsible government that fails to choose.

The government that came into power after the April 1994 elections was going to need a budget. It was drafted by our finance minister, Derek Keys, and he convinced them of the necessity to stay within the free-market principles that had been in force in South Africa for decades.

You don't raise taxes in times of such uncertainty.

In fact, I think - our view of this is that while the agreement, the compromise did not achieve the kind of super-sized deficit reduction that we sought, it did end the uncertainty around the perception, the possibility that the United States might default on its obligations for its first time. That was a good thing.

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

I'm not saying my idea is the one and only idea. We should have other ideas, but the president has not laid down a specific plan as to how he's going to get us to solvency. I do that.

I have made 'start, grow and stay' a big part of my administration.

Stimulus spending, permanent bailouts, government takeovers, and federal mandates have all failed our nation. America's employers are afraid to invest in an economy racked with uncertainty over what Washington's next set of rules, regulations, mandates, and tax hikes will look like.

Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more.

Economists have predicted seven of the last two recessions.

Anybody can balance a budget if they raise taxes.

In good years, [the law] does not allow the state to capture so-called surplus revenue to save them for the downside of the business cycle

It is dangerous to play politics with the Budget.

We can’t even project [budget surpluses and deficits] accurately month-to-month, much less for an entire year.

I've always thought that good politics follows from good economics and good policies.

The future path of the federal funds rate is necessarily uncertain because economic activity and inflation will likely evolve in unexpected ways. For example, no one can be certain about the pace at which economic headwinds will fade. More generally, the economy will inevitably be buffeted by shocks that cannot be foreseen.

We can't let government make long-term commitments that it may not be able to keep.