Erskine Bowles Quotes

The top threat that gets very little focus from Washington these days is what Adm. Mike Mullen identified as the biggest threat to the U.S.: the American debt.

The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy. It borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.

I do not want America to default on its debt.

We have, during his regime, during President Obama's regime, we've doubled our national debt. We're up to $20 trillion.

I really truly worry that the debt is one of the single biggest threat to the United States of America, that we're talking about a problem that is multi-trillion in its depth and I think we ought to be cutting more.

When you're the president of the United States and you know that the biggest issue facing you is this cliff that we're about ready to head over if we don't get this spending and debt situation under control, it's very irresponsible not to take the action that is necessary to fix the problem.

This debt crisis coming to our country. The wall and tidal wave of debt that is befalling our nation. Medicare and Social Security go bankrupt within ten years, we have a debt that is looming so high that in the last year of President Obama's budget just the interest payments on our debt is $916 billion dollars.

The American people will eventually get hurt by this accumulated deficit. That's the problem. We have too much deficit. We have to find a solution.

A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation.

The single biggest threat to our national security is our debt.

The American people care about the fact that we have $17 trillion in debt and 10 percent of every tax dollar that's coming in is going to pay for past overspending.

The greatest threat to our national security is our debt. We borrow a million dollars a minute.

As boom- and bust-prone as high finance always has been and remains, the greatest systemic risk to our economy is not Wall Street. It's the growing federal debt (and weakening dollar) being enacted by those Washington politicians - the ones who want to protect us from Wall Street.

If I was in Congress, I would not vote to raise the debt ceiling.

To me, there is no greater threat than our debt. I'm the only fiscal conservative on the stage because I'm willing to hold the line on all spending.

We have a debt the size of our economy, which makes us look a lot like Greece.

When you get the economy growing, that's when you can deal with the national debt.

The debt they ran up in the first year of the Obama administration is bigger than the last four years of the Bush combined.

If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth.

President Obama's call for nearly a half-trillion dollars in more government stimulus when America has more than $14 trillion in debt is guided by his mistaken belief that we can spend our way to prosperity.

Have you noticed the debt is exploding? And it's not all because of Medicare.

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

We can't continue to kick the can when it comes to the fiscal state of this country.

I am not wrong in the belief that its public funds are more secure than those of all the European powers.

We have mountain of debt that isn't going away and all the problems are here to stay, and anybody who tells you that is a good thing ought to get out of the business of helping the government down the road.