Fiscal Tightening Quotes

As Secretary of Defense my job would be much easier if I didn't have to put up with [budget] cuts.

Those who make the most and loudest speeches about deficit reduction are least likely to vote against spending.

I am an austere president.

There is no budget for travel for a Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Austerity [in the Defense Department] meant that risks had to be managed, not eliminated.

The budget is tight, and that is exactly where we want it to be and where we need it to be.

Deficits must be cut, yes, but the rush to austerity risks undermining the fragile global recovery.

Past experience with fiscal austerity at home and overseas strongly suggests that it is best for the economy's long-run performance to restrain government spending rather than raise taxes.

When your economy is not growing that fast, everybody's got to bite the bullet.

Look, I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast. I mean, the kinds of spending cuts we're talking about just right now are $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget.

I have voted to make tough decisions in budgetary times, I've served on two recessionary budgets, my opponent has never served on any a budget committee where there was less money to spend than the year before.

Gradual fiscal consolidation may also be stimulative in the short run.

A government decision that slashes spending at the wrong time and sends a weak economy into a tailspin can be just as undisciplined as one that unleashes a wasteful spending spree in an overheated environment.

Instead of an end to austerity, Labour has made clear that it wants to impose more austerity cuts.

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

The insane pursuit of the holy grail of a balanced budget in the end is going to drive the economy into a depression.

This assumes an upward revision of the European Budget, which is precisely what Jacques Chirac refuses to do. On the contrary, he has demanded a reduction.

There is no belt to tighten anymore.

When you have a country that's been accustomed to government spending at a certain level, it is really hard to ratchet it back.

It has been said that the Fed's job is to take the punch bowl away just as the party gets going, raising interest rates when the economy is growing too fast and inflation threatens.

I think it's essential that we do more than talk about austerity measures and cutting.

There is going to have to be austerity in the state of Kentucky.

Austerity has led us to a terrible philosophy where we think we've got to cut back on everything that's 'frippery', like the arts.

Cold-turkey deficit reduction would cause a significant recession. A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that going headlong over the cliff would cause our gross domestic product, which has been growing at an annual rate of around 2 percent, to fall at a rate of 2.9 percent in the first half of 2013.

In difficult economic times, I'm firmly opposed to austerity.