Paul Simon Quotes

I urge the Congress to avoid running up large costs for future generations of Americans.

We must get rid of deficit spending which finances the political schemes of today by mortgaging the future of tomorrow.

We all have to sacrifice to reduce the debt, but we can’t sacrifice our future.

Nineteen years is the term beyond which neither the representatives of a nation nor even the whole nation itself assembled can validly extend a debt ... one generation is to another as one independent nation to another.

The era of deficit denial is over

Every generation has an obligation to leave its children in a better position than it inherited. Our representatives in Washington are breaking faith with that covenant. America must reduce its federal spending and accumulation of debt for the sake of generations to come.

If we don't change the way Washington operates we're going to bankrupt our children and grandchildren.

America has to ask itself not what it wants, but what it can afford... The New Deal, in my mind, has become a raw deal for my children.

So when I look at spending more dollars, I look at the fact, do I really want my kids and your kids and everybody else's kids in this country to have to pay that bill?

We have been maintaining a standard of living by putting things on the debt of the next generation.

I think that we have a responsibility to make certain that we are fiscally responsible in order to assure, frankly, future generations don't have to pay our bills.

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.

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

A nation is not in danger of financial disaster merely because it owes itself money.

To add current expenses of the Government to the national debt ... and thereby pass the current cost of government to the next generation is not only bad financing but very bad statesmanship.

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

Let’s make this the year where we are either going to get rid of the deficit or get rid of the idea that we are going to get rid of the deficit..

Let us have the courage to stop borrowing to meet continuing deficits. Revenues must cover expenditures by one means or another. Any government, like any family, can, for a year, spend a little more than it earns. But you know and I know that a continuation of the habit means the poor house.

The easiest thing that is done, unfortunately, in Washington is to spend money today and send the bill to our children and grandchildren.

I have three adult children, and I have four grandchildren. I want to stop the deficits. I want to make sure that we're not passing on to my children and my grandchildren deficits and that we cannot repay and that they will have to repay and maybe they won't be able to repay them.

The biggest change we have to tackle that's out there is that we're digging the hole deeper and deeper and spending is totally out of control. And that's something that, quite frankly, is affecting future generations. You're giving a lot of debt to them and you can't keep doing it. It's not helping anybody.

Now we are raising the debt limit 3 times, up to $8 trillion, so that our children and our grandchildren will have to pay for the cost of our expenditures.

You cannot go out and say, oh, I am going to raise all this spending, but it's not going to cost anybody any money.

I am not disputing the need for this money. What I am disputing and calling attention to is the fact that we are taking the tab for defense in our time against terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere and shoving this tab off onto our children.

Raising the debt ceiling is not additional spending. It is simply saying, you, the United States of America, can continue to borrow the money you need to pay the bills you have already rung up.