Gita Gopinath Quotes

We can't have deficit spending in Texas. You have to balance your budget every two years.

If we had decided on January 5, in the new House of Representatives, to make no new spending bills, the debt ceiling would've still been hit, because, those are bills that are coming in as a result of purchases and commitments made by the administration and the previous Congress.

It is no part of my job as Chancellor of the Exchequer to put before the House of Commons proposals for the expenditure of public money. The function of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as I understand it, is to resist all demands for expenditure made by his colleagues and, when he can no longer resist, to limit the concession to the barest point of acceptance.

The reason we vote on the debt ceiling is to pay for past spending. It has nothing to do with what we are going to spend. What you are really saying is “I’m sorry, I am so mad that I don’t want to pay my past debts.”

We need a straitjacket around Congress when it comes to spending so that they are forced to do what 49 states are required to do and what every family business and every family is required to do, and that's live within their means.

Putting the budget ahead of the policy is the wrong way to do it. It's too often the way it's done in Washington.

I can tell you if you look at the polls, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, they do not think we should increase the debt limit.

All the states are required, either by constitution or by statute, to have balanced budgets - they're not able to print money. So they have to focus on establishing priorities.

Bush has never sent over a balanced budget.

The only way you can raise the debt ceiling is to change the trajectory of spending - that's my personal preference. But I want the Ways and Means Committee to offer up a solution.

Sequestration is leverage that should not be given up easily.

I was able to promote a strong defense budget when it could have been cut a lot more severely.

We need to get rid of the debt ceiling law. It's anachronistic and it's a problem.

Monetary discipline forces fiscal discipline on the politicians as well.

Republicans went off track. We were spending too much money.

Normally, when politicians talk about 'cutting the budget,' they really mean reducing the amount of increase. Actual spending goes up while the politicians claim to have 'cut the budget.'

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far, far from it, but there is no free lunch, as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble.

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

If you ask the question of Americans, should we pay our bills? One hundred percent would say yes. There's a significant misunderstanding on the debt ceiling. People think it's authorizing new spending. The debt ceiling doesn't authorize new spending; it allows us to pay obligations already incurred.

I personally do not worship at the alter of a balanced budget.

The reason Congress hasn't balanced the budget is that the sky hasn't fallen lately.

Those who make the most and loudest speeches about deficit reduction are least likely to vote against spending.

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

The biggest enemy of the United States is not some terrorist hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan but our own fiscal irresponsibility

What would be better is to discipline our lawmakers in Sacramento so that they do not spend more money than they have.