Barack Obama Quotes

It is time for us to insist that we are accountable for the money that we are spending.

We know that appropriators will fight these cutbacks. But by eliminating earmarks, we can stop the horse trading that grows agency budgets.

The American people are tired of the out-of-control spending, and they want Washington to get their act in order and stop spending money we don't have.

You got to have a courageous president to stand up and says, listen, if - if you send a bill to me that spends more money than what we've coming in, I'll veto it. I mean, I'm going to try to work with you the best I can, but I'm going to veto it.

We need to replace hyperbole with a reasonable, informed discussion about how to reinvent the federal budget with more transparency and better accountability.

Every government program needs to be more efficient. Instead of pointing out how other programs can tighten their belts, every program administrator must look inward to save money.

Politicians like to confuse congressional spending with earmarks. There is a difference.

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of public moneys.

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

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

Congress is not an ATM

The budget doesn't have much control over the government. Then again, the government doesn't have much control over the budget.

We should never waive the checks on government spending that taxpayers deserve.

The Appropriations Committee in the Senate is out of control, out of control on spending.

You know, even people who talk about cutting spending and they go 'That's not the spending that I was actually talking about that you're supposed to be cutting.' Well, we have to be looking across the board.

Before we give you billions more, we want to know what you've done with the trillion you've got.

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.

All the states are required, either by constitution or by statute, to have balanced budgets - they're not able to print money. So they have to focus on establishing priorities.

I firmly believe that the most important feature of spending the people's money is complete transparency.

As I have traveled throughout my Congressional district, the one thing I heard loud and clear was simply please stop spending money you do not have, rein in spending, live within a budget.

I don't mind the government accruing debts as long as every dollar is spent effectively with a high return. That works out fine. If you accumulate debts and waste your money, that's, of course, a disaster.

I came to Congress to help reduce spending.

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.

Under President Obama, we have spent more money - he has spent more money than any other president in this history, actually, the combined total from Washington up to George W. Bush. President Obama has racked up more spending, $1 trillion deficits. And it's time that he join us in this effort to get our fiscal house in order.

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