Mick Mulvaney Quotes

We're going to have to control the spending of government.

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

You may think my business is to make appropriations, but it is not. It is to prevent their being made.

I am a governor who left office with a smaller general fund budget than when we started.

I am not one of those who believe that we are bound to vote supplies to cover a deficiency in the treasury whenever called on, without investigating the causes which occasioned it.

As American families and businesses have been forced to tighten their belts, Washington has refused to do the same.

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

While our nation faces many challenges that must be met regarding homeland security and our military readiness, it is imperative that we live within our means and wisely spend taxpayer dollars.

States, virtually all of them, have a constitutional requirement to operate on a balanced budget.

I've made more cuts than any governor has ever made.

At a time of tight budgets, unless something is really broken and not working, they [his congressional colleagues] just don't get excited about it.

The only way to meet the situation [the financial crisis] is spend less money and to run the City of New York within the limits of our resources. Unless you do this, gentlemen, you will have a difficult problem confronting you by the end of this year and the taxpayers of 1922 and the years thereafter will have to pay the price of our present lack of prudence or our unwillingness to economize at the proper time.

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

The Federal Government has no fiscal policy, for the tail of political expediency has long wagged the dog of prudent policy in Washington.

Washington has to stop spending money we don’t have for projects we don’t want.

Congress is not an ATM

Actively search for spending bills that I can veto as a sign of … financial stewardship.

We need to focus on issues where we all agree, which is spending discipline and control and making sure that government, both in Springfield and in Washington, doesn't take more from your family budget.

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.

We are the ones that are trying to get Washington spending under control so it can live within its means.

Some states like Nebraska have thus far responsibly managed their budgets, even in tough times, and I could not ask Nebraskans to pay for poor governance elsewhere.

I've been a conservative when it comes to budgeting issues and streamlining government.

Government must continue to live within its means.

We need more leaders in Washington who will do more with less - and that's how we engineer real change.

My parents taught us to live within our means. It's time to force Washington to do the same.