Donald Trump Quotes

Yes, we can pay the interest on the debt. We can renew the $500 billion worth of bonds that are coming due. We can mail out our Social Security checks. We can make sure those Medicare claims are honored. We can pay our military. We can protect our veterans. But when you get beyond that, the soup gets a little thin.

If we reach the debt ceiling, we don't have to default. Getting to that point just won't allow us to reach new debt.

Why am I interested in deficits? The only way you balance the budget in this country long-term is through sustained economic growth. And that's what everything we are doing in this administration is aimed at that end goal.

I have spoken about deficits, and I think deficits are important because they address broad economic and financial stability. We need to talk about that.

There is a very serious fiscal-policy question of, 'Are we running our overall fiscal policy such that we as a government can pay our bills?'

Monetary discipline forces fiscal discipline on the politicians as well.

The debt ceiling serves no useful purpose.

I don't see why anybody's playing chicken with the debt ceiling.

The debt ceiling is not something to toy with.

Having billions of dollars immediately available to plug budget holes without raising taxes is very appealing. And to the delight of Wall Street investors, state and local governments often fail to ask the important questions or consider the long-term impact.

I'm not going to raise the debt ceiling.

I think some people don't truly understand the situation, and they think, you know, the debt limit, it doesn't really mean anything, and they don't understand the implications on the U.S. economy and on the global markets.

Countries like Canada, Korea, China, Germany can and should use fiscal space. Some of them are doing it, not all.

I served on the budget committee in the Senate, and I remember as vividly as if it were yesterday when we had a hearing in which Alan Greenspan came and justified increasing spending and cutting taxes, saying that we didn't really need to pay down the debt - outrageous in my view.

There's no reason to raise taxes. Taxes should be lower... The problem we have is that government spends too much, not that taxes are too low.

There's no debt limit in the Constitution.

We have to deal with two issues. Spending and taxes.

If the government mandates anything with a price tag on it, then it ought to fund the project.

If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth.

It is simply science fiction fantasy to say that, if you do not raise the debt ceiling, that everything is going to collapse.

If it took multiple debt ceiling hikes, I'd rather achieve the savings.

The U.S. has a law on the books called the debt limit, but the name is misleading. The debt limit started in 1917 for the purpose of facilitating more national debt, not reducing it. It still serves that purpose. It's unconnected to spending, hurts our credit rating and has been an abject failure at limiting debt.

The only way you can raise the debt ceiling is to change the trajectory of spending - that's my personal preference. But I want the Ways and Means Committee to offer up a solution.

Sequestration was not designed to be anyone's ideal method for getting our hands around government spending, and it certainly isn't mine.

When you're the president of the United States and you know that the biggest issue facing you is this cliff that we're about ready to head over if we don't get this spending and debt situation under control, it's very irresponsible not to take the action that is necessary to fix the problem.