Max Baucus Quotes

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.

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

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

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

A lawmaker cannot be pro-sequester while also purporting to be pro-national security or supportive of a strong economy.

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.

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

I was able to promote a strong defense budget when it could have been cut a lot more severely.

Monetary discipline forces fiscal discipline on the politicians as well.

You will see the President being very, very tough on spending.

The President has a short time to let people know that he is serious about getting spending under control.

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

A long-lasting and sustained recovery will never be achieved through massive government spending programs.

'Austerity' is a real weasel word because it's an attempt to make something value-based and abstract out of something which, in reality, consists simply of spending cuts.

I think to balance the budget, probably every federal department has to take cuts in my opinion.

But I think the global economy will understand that the United States has the ability to meet its obligations. But it's not going to be able to do it over the long term if we can't control the growth of government.

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

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.

The budget enforcement rules of the 1990s were an important part of getting the budget back into balance. It was done on a bipartisan basis. Those pay-as-you-go rules were tested and they worked. We are now in a one-party system, and we have thrown them out.

In my political career, I'd like to see a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

The Tea Party knows that continuing to delay charting a course to spending reform hurts everybody.

Of course we have to address the deficit if we win.

When businesses face tough times, one of the first items they cut is overhead expenses. The government should do the same.

I'd be a lot more excited about eliminating earmarks if we reduced all of the spending by whatever the earmarks used to be, but nobody's, apparently, going to talk about doing that.