Tom Lantos Quotes

We need real leadership, Democrat, Republican and independent to stand up and say, we have to live within our means.

It is time we passed a balanced budget amendment and return this government to limited spending.

Our state has a balanced budget. We have to live within our means in the state of Wyoming. I was in the state senate. This country needs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

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

Our state has a balanced budget. We have to live within our means in the state of Wyoming. I was in the state senate. This country needs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We need to live within our means.

There is no real justification for a requirement that a budget of any sort should be balanced, except as a rallying point for those who seek to hamstring government.

I was fortunate, I guess, to be part of some good fiscal discipline in the Bush administration. The budget I put forward was a balanced budget.

I'm for a balanced budget now.

We are absolutely going to have to provide fiscal security to people; in other words, we are going to have to show the country and the world that the country can live within its means.

I think anybody who looks at my record will say I've been trying to cut government spending and make government live more like families do.

I will always vote what I have promised, and always vote the Constitution, as well as I will not vote for one single penny that isn't paid for, because debt is the monster, debt is what's going to eat us up and that is why our economy is on the brink.

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

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.

The American people know that we cannot spend our way to prosperity.

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

I'd be a lot more excited about eliminating earmarks if we reduced all of the spending by whatever the earmarks used to be, but nobody's, apparently, going to talk about doing that.

Mr. Obama's choices show how fundamentally unserious he is about deficit reduction and spending restraint.

Well, first of all, let's go right to it. We're going to balance the budget. We should live within our own means, and we should read the bills and work with the American people.

In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less. That is enough. The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government.

Disciplined governments do not engage in the economic equivalent of binge eating followed by crash dieting.

We've not had one Republican president in 34 years balance the budget. You can't trust right-wing Republicans with your money. You ought to hire somebody who has balanced a budget. I'm much more conservative with money than George Bush is.

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.

We laugh at liberals who declare that their favorite spending programs should be exempt because the spending is for a noble cause.

Well, I'm going to try to make a real difference in Washington's spending patterns.

I think what they're looking for is for us to keep our promises and to do the simple things, like cutting spending and being responsible.