72 Debt Ceiling Quotes
Following is our list of debt ceiling quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about national debt.
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Famous Debt Ceiling Quotes
An increase in the debt ceiling should be accompanied by fundamental policy reforms, substantial budget savings, and a strong enforcement mechanism to tie the hands of any future Congress. — Jerome Powell
Now we are raising the debt limit 3 times, up to $8 trillion, so that our children and our grandchildren will have to pay for the cost of our expenditures. — Chaka Fattah
The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her. — Ross Perot
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. — Thomas Jefferson
A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property - an unpaid tax bill. — Hans F. Sennholz
Omega candles aren’t possible. US national debt is rising by $1 trillion dollars every 100 days. That’s 100 Omega candles a day. — Samson Mow
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. — Alexander Hamilton
The United States has never prioritized or failed to pay any obligation when due during a debt limit impasse. — Jerome Powell
No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence. — Thomas Jefferson
It's a shame that we have to use whatever leverage we have in Congress to get the president to deal with the biggest problem confronting our future. And that's our excessive spending. — Mitch McConnell
Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver. — Ambrose Bierce
LFC is not servicing debt other than stadium debt. — John W. Henry
It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralise the long-range effects of our national stupidity — Frank Zappa
We all think we're going to get out of debt. — Louie Anderson
We need to stop spending money we don't have. — Paul Ryan
Debt Crisis Quotes
Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence - those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. — Aldous Huxley
Every financial crisis is made out of excess money and credit. — Russell Napier
All crises have involved debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale in relation to the underlying means of payment. — John Kenneth Galbraith
Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I am confident that we can overcome this crisis, provided that we remain united in our effort to address our debt and competitiveness problems. And I think that the Greek people are united; it's important also that the political forces are united in line with the will of the Greek people. — Lucas Papademos
The World Bank is now the biggest culprit in the debt crisis. — Susan George
Civilization has given us enormous successes: going to the moon, technology. But then this is the civilisation that took us to debt, environmental crisis, every single crisis. We need a civilization where we say goodbye to these things. — Muhammad Yunus
At this time - we're in a dramatic crisis - euro bonds are precisely the wrong answer. They lead us into a debt union, not a stability union. Each country has to take its own steps to reduce its debt. — Angela Merkel
Our platform calls for a balanced deficit reduction plan where the wealthy pay their fair share. And when your country is in a costly war, with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare - it's patriotism. — Cory Booker
If there is one common theme to the vast range of crises...it is that excessive debt accumulation, whether it be by the government, banks, corporations, or consumers, often poses greater systemic risks than it seems during a boom. — Carmen Reinhart
National Debt Quotes
I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country. — Andrew Jackson
Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt. — Herbert Hoover
America's fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers that have paid the ultimate price for this cause, as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed. — Allen Boyd
A national debt if it is not excessive will be to us a national blessing; it will be powerfull cement of our union. It will also create a necessity for keeping up taxation to a degree which without being oppressive, will be a spur to industry. — Alexander Hamilton
Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay, but we can honor their sacrifice. — Barack Obama
The national debt has given rise to joint stock companies, to dealings in negotiable effects of all kinds, and to agiotage , in a word to stock-exchange gambling and the modern bankocracy . — Karl Marx
As to Taxes, they are evidently inseparable from Government. It is impossible without them to pay the debts of the nation, to protect it from foreign danger, or to secure individuals from lawless violence and rapine. — Alexander Hamilton
Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt. — William Cobbett
We don`t need to drive up the national debt by giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. — Bernie Sanders
Because Social Security has not contributed to our debt, Americans should be skeptical of any politician who says that benefits Americans have earned must be reduced in order to address our national debt. — Hank Johnson
Government Debt Quotes
Every American born today owes $43,000 to the federal government the day she or he is born. And we are transferring a tremendous amount of debt to the new generation, much of it owed to overseas creditors who expect to be repaid by our children with interest. — Mark Kirk
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure... It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. — Barack Obama
The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife. — Thomas Jefferson
We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. — Marco Rubio
The real point about credit bubbles is that they are fueled by the promise of government actions, not the reality of what has been achieved. — Russell Napier
These subsidies from four European governments, which include aircraft launch assistance, capital injections, debt forgiveness, have enabled Airbus to develop and range market airliners well below cost. — Norm Dicks
The Government of Iraq also owes a debt to the American and coalition forces who are fighting the insurgency and helping put that country back together after decades of repression. — Ike Skelton
We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out.... We will stand by our homes and stay by our firesides by force if necessary, and we will not pay our debts to the loan-shark companies until the government pays its debts to us. — Mary Elizabeth Lease
With all this consumer debt, business debt, government debt, smaller movements in interest rates have a magnified effect. a small movement can tip the boat. — Bill Gross
The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts. — Henry Ford
People Writing About Debt Ceiling
More Debt Ceiling Quotes
The debate we won't be having is whether or not the debt ceiling should be raised. We will not have a situation where people will hold the American economy hostage in order to achieve a specific agenda - at least not until 2013. So we think that is incredibly important as a matter of economic good. — Jay Carney
If you ask the question of Americans, should we pay our bills? One hundred percent would say yes. There's a significant misunderstanding on the debt ceiling. People think it's authorizing new spending. The debt ceiling doesn't authorize new spending; it allows us to pay obligations already incurred. — Peter Welch
America pays its bills. It always has. It always will. The fact that Washington is now debating whether to honor its debts and obligations, then, should come as a surprise. But playing political football with a necessary vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling has become as predictable as a Twitter rant from Charlie Sheen. — Peter Welch
The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. — James Surowiecki
Raising the debt ceiling is not additional spending. It is simply saying, you, the United States of America, can continue to borrow the money you need to pay the bills you have already rung up. — Jay Carney
First they didn't believe in evolution. Then they didn't believe in global warming. Now the debt ceiling. What I call 'the moron trifecta.' — Bill Maher
Most of the major increases in the debt ceiling have been accompanied by structural changes in the way we raise and spend money. — Charles Bass
It is simply science fiction fantasy to say that, if you do not raise the debt ceiling, that everything is going to collapse. — Mike Lee
If it took multiple debt ceiling hikes, I'd rather achieve the savings. — Bob Corker
We need to get rid of the debt ceiling law. It's anachronistic and it's a problem. — Mark Zandi
I would vote against raising the national debt ceiling. Again, this is about mortgaging the future of unborn generations of Americans. It's a form of taxation without representation. I don't think we can do that. — Mike Lee
I would be embarrassed to tell you how many folks ran saying that they weren't going to spend a bunch of money, they weren't going to raise the debt ceiling, and then they went to Washington, D.C., and did exactly that. — Mick Mulvaney
Hikes in the debt ceiling - without any political demands from the opposition party - had been routine until President Obama took office. — Juan Williams
The Republican argument that raising the debt ceiling encourages additional future spending is logically irresponsible. The debt ceiling has to be raised to authorize spending already approved by Congress. Despite that fallacy, the GOP has been able to score political points with its argument. — Eliot Spitzer
When you don't have as much debt as we do, we don't have to worry about having this debt ceiling fight every single year. And I really think people are getting sick of having this news cycle every single year from Congress, from the Washington bubble. — Katie Pavlich
We're not going to default. We just won't default. I mean, there are ways of not defaulting even if you don't raise the debt ceiling, and even if you don't fund the government. — Eric Bolling
The president says we need to raise the debt ceiling because America pays its bills. No if we paid our bills we wouldn't have all this debt. The reason we have to raise the debt ceiling is because we can't pay our bills and we have to borrow money because we don't have any money to pay our bills. — Peter Schiff
The debt ceiling debacle is almost a horrible metaphor: It's as if a bomb went off at 800 Pennsylvania Avenue and sent shrapnel flying in every direction. I don't know what these guys think they're doing, but it looks like they're committing political suicide. — Charlie Cook
You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. — Steve Wynn
We would be somewhat foolish to work out something on stopping us from going over the cliff and then a month or six weeks later Republicans pull the same game they did before and say, 'We're not going to do anything - unless this happens, we're not going to agree to increasing the debt ceiling.' I agree with the president, it has to be a package deal. — Harry Reid
Our real debt ceiling isn't decided by Washington; it's decided by Beijing. — David Burge
It's a shame that the president doesn't embrace the effort to reduce spending. None of us like using situations like the sequester or the debt ceiling or the operation of government to try to engage the president to deal with this. — Mitch McConnell
If I was in Congress, I would not vote to raise the debt ceiling. — Sean Hannity
The debt ceiling at some point has to be raised. I don't think there's anybody that questions the fact that if we ended up getting in a situation where the U.S. government was sending out IOUs like the state of California did at one point, that ends up creating quite a brand problem for our country. — Bob Corker
The bottom line is very simple. You negotiate on this, they will up the ante for the debt ceiling. — Charles Schumer
The debt-ceiling vote isn't about what will be done in the future; it is about the integrity of America's commitment to support the bonds we issue. Elected officials have an obligation to maintain that integrity, regardless of whether they voted for the programs that required the borrowing in the first place. — John Sununu
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