Paul W. McCracken Quotes

I do not pretend to step out of my own sphere and to control the internal management of other departments, but it seems to me that as Secretary of the Treasury, I may ask, that, while peace continues, the aggregate of the expenditure of those departments be kept within bounds such as will preserve the equilibrium between the national revenue and expenditure without recurrence to loans.

I always think a debt ceiling is a good tool to carry something.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

If the U.S. Government was a company, the deficit would be $5 trillion because they would have to account by general accepted accounting principles. But actually they encourage government spending, reckless government spending, because the government can issue Treasury bills at extremely low interest rates.

There is a very serious fiscal-policy question of, 'Are we running our overall fiscal policy such that we as a government can pay our bills?'

Most of the major increases in the debt ceiling have been accompanied by structural changes in the way we raise and spend money.

Our system of keeping the federal government's books is a monument to the creativity of mankind ... We've cut government spending for 15 years in a row, and yet have spent more money in each of those years.

The best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to pay as it goes—not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out of debt.

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

A public debt is a public curse and in a representative government greater than any other.

We can have tax cuts, but when we have tax cuts and do not have a surplus, the amount of the tax cut goes straight to the bottom line, adds to the deficit, and the deficit adds to the national debt, and sooner or later, the debt has to be paid.

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 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.

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

People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income.

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

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

If you raise taxes, it won't reduce the deficit. The other team will simply spend the resources.

The debt ceiling at some point has to be raised. I don't think there's anybody that questions the fact that if we ended up getting in a situation where the U.S. government was sending out IOUs like the state of California did at one point, that ends up creating quite a brand problem for our country.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until someone is asked to pay the bill.

The national budget is perhaps the most important and least understood documents in Washington.

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution ... an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

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

May the debt of the United States be discharged with speed and punctuality; and let not the people be deceived, by having the funds, established for that purpose, put to other uses.