Michael Bloomberg Quotes

President Obama is traveling around the country, proposing a stimulus bill that has already failed once. Instead of having an honest discussion about whether or not a plan that already failed once will fail again, the establishment would rather distract the American people with gossip.

The American people know the economy is too weak. Too many of them are suffering. So the question for Washington is, are we going to continue to play political games and - and - or are we going to say, we can do something right now to create jobs, to put money in the pockets of the middle-class, hire construction workers, teachers, veterans?

To protect people's lives and keep our children safe, we must implement public-works spending and do so proudly. If possible, I'd like to see the Bank of Japan purchase all of the construction bonds that we need to issue to cover the cost. That would also forcefully circulate money in the market. That would be positive for the economy, too.

Where we're coming down is we currently have $787 billion of stimulus that's been passed. We're certainly focusing on spending that money as quickly and as efficiently and as transparently as we can. We think that's absolutely the right strategy.

And taking more money out of the private economy and having the government perform as it has poorly done with the stimulus I don't think is the right way to go.

Politicians - in both political parties - spend too much money. And they forget to focus on what matters most: fixing the economic mess they created and putting people back to work.

In the 1860s we used the national debt to save the Union. In the 1930s we used it to save the American economy. In the 1940s we used it to save the world.

Secretary Clinton, right from day one, wants to do real investment in public works and infrastructure, building highways and bridges, building airports, to doing what we need to do that way which lifts the economy up, undoubtedly.

If your budget is in good shape and you are not indebted too much, you can do what the U.S. did at the beginning of the '30s - building railways, etc., but when you don't have that, you must be far more cautious.

When the economy's shrinking, providing jobs, spending on things like infrastructure can actually increase revenue and drive down debt. And then, there's going to be a time at which point debt has to be taken care of.

What saved the economy, and the New Deal, was the enormous public works project known as World War II, which finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs.

When my husband was president, we went from a $300 billion deficit to a $200 billion surplus and we were actually on the path to eliminating the national debt. When President Obama came into office, he inherited the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. He has cut the deficit by two-thirds.

I wish we had the $4 trillion or $5 trillion. I wish it were spent right here in the United States, on our schools, hospitals, roads, airports, and everything else that are all falling apart.

I mean, the 1930s are the birth moment of modern public sector, government-driven infrastructure spending.

All week Senate will be on the Stimulus/Porkulus Bill. Tune in C SPAN

That's why the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan won't just throw money at our problems, we'll invest in what works

The challenge for any government is how do you do two things at the same time. How do you put money forward for things like the payroll tax holiday, for things like getting a jump-start on infrastructure, for building schools, and make the decisions for long-term deficit reduction.

Everybody has to agree that the best thing we can do to start reducing the deficit in this country is to put people back to work.

The anti-New Deal line is wrong as a matter of economics. F.D.R.'s spending programs did help the economy and created millions of new jobs.

The number of jobs created under President Barack Obama's stimulus turned out to be fewer than the number we would have had if the government had done nothing - according to the Obama administration's own analysis. So we got $9 trillion of debt with almost nothing to pay for it.

Spending on infrastructure will help employment.

In my judgment, we have to avoid, at all costs, tax increases. That would be the worst possible thing to do and will make a bad economy even worse. Beyond that, targeted tax relief should be expanded upon.

The Obama 'stimulus' plan is a $1 trillion dollar gamble more suited to Las Vegas than Washington.

Let's not only provide a jumpstart to the economy and immediately or save 3 million jobs, but let's also put a down payment on some of the structural problems that we have in our economy.

At times of recession, running a budget deficit is highly desirable. Once the economy begins to recover, you have to balance the budget. But it will also need additional revenues. Should the government not receive them, we will all get punished with higher interest rates.