Jacob J. Lew Quotes

Without deficit reduction, we cannot have sustained economic growth.

I will work to restore fiscal responsibility to our country's budget and to provide for a more robust economy.

The first order of business is the elimination of the annual deficit.

Only one thing can save this country, and that's to get a handle on this deficit and debt issue.

To be clear, aiming to reduce the national debt in the long term and running small surpluses when the economy is operating close to full capacity is what I mean when I talk about seeking to 'balance the books' - a sensible approach.

Not in the constitution, but I would propose a law to the French parliament that provides for reducing the budget deficit year by year, until we have reached a balanced budget by 2017.

The Tea Party knows that continuing to delay charting a course to spending reform hurts everybody.

Reducing debt through budgetary consolidation is essential to restoring Europe's financial health.

Without a doubt, first thing we should do is clean up our fiscal house, and that starts with balancing our budgets and digging out of this red ink. We cannot expect to continue in this fashion and remain the leader of the free world.

It's time for the sensible center to rise up and push for a rational approach to our fiscal challenges.

It's insane to try to balance the budget.

But the debt limit obviously is something that needs to and will be passed. That is not inconsistent with a process and a belief that we have to get significant deficit reduction.

I think achieving a higher fiscal stability is also a very important condition for restoring an environment which is conducive to growth.

We agree with Simpson and Bowles and others who have looked at this. What's necessary is to stabilize the debt and then work from there. You can't balance the budget in the short term because to do that would be to ratchet down the economy.

Monetary discipline forces fiscal discipline on the politicians as well.

If we didn't propose these reforms, we would not have proposed a budget that got the debt under control.

The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.

We have a spending problem, not a taxing problem. The less we spend, the more jobs we have the potential to create.

I am prepared to discuss the things that I believe we need to do not just to raise the debt limit. Raising the debt limit is the easiest thing. That's one vote away. The hard thing is to show the world we are serious about putting our spending in order so we can show people we'll able to pay our bills down the road.

As a Main Street businessman, I believe we need to reduce runaway federal spending and address our national debt and the MAP Act provides Congress with the tools to accomplish this goal.

It is important for India to stay the course on fiscal consolidation.

But I think the global economy will understand that the United States has the ability to meet its obligations. But it's not going to be able to do it over the long term if we can't control the growth of government.

In my political career, I'd like to see a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

As the President reviewed the state of the union and unveiled his second-term agenda, he fell short of adequately explaining how he intends to set America back on the course of fiscal responsibility and secure the fiscal health of the nation.

No one in the modern history of this country, no president, has done more to move toward a balanced budget than has President Bill Clinton.