Deficit

“ He believed stiff and strong that the deficit of the Budget was the only cause of the trouble and the strife, and he figured night and day to raise the deficit, till at last for mere sheer numerals he could see neither men nor their threatening aspect; and yet he had in all his folly one happy thought, which was to assemble the Notables. I say that it was a very happy thought, for it benefited Freedom; without that deficit France might have dragged on much longer in a condition of wretched sickliness. ”

“ Thanks to your mysterious master, dearth will follow on disaster,
Ills will follow fast and faster, trade will wholly leave your shore;
And the people, so impoverish’d, will your taxes pay no more.
Debt will haunt you more and more!
“Now your revenue is sinking—it’s no use the matter blinking,
Every day, you know, Sir Stafford, your big deficit grows more,
And you have to borrow, borrow (three more millions, eh, to-morrow?)
You have now a floating debt that’s ten times what it was of yore;
Think upon the splendid Budget Gladstone left in ’Seventy-four,
And your muddle now deplore!” ”

“ You have already landed yourself in a deficit of 30 millions of francs."
"Then I should reduce the salt-tax to 10 francs."
"Good. Then you land yourself in a deficit of other thirty millions. You have doubtless invented a new tax?"
"Heaven forbid! And besides, I do not flatter myself with possessing an inventive genius." ”

“ My approach to deficit reduction is entirely different, and it's no secret. We should reduce deficits first and foremost by continuing our economic growth and by reducing wasteful government spending. ”

“ Last Wednesday night I went on television to explain to you the budget decisions we must make. Our greatest challenge is bringing down deficit spending and doing it in a way which will keep our economy vigorous and expanding. ”

“ The increased wants increase the outlay, which in most cases does not square with the income, and therefore the accounts of many close with a deficit The consequences of this deficit for the happiness, and even for the morals of the family, I leave untouched. ”

“ Ah! I see. What was I thinking of? You intend simply to reduce the expenditure. I did not think of that."
"You are not singular. I shall come to that; but for the present, that is not the resource on which I depend."
"What! you are to diminish the revenue without reducing the expenditure, and withal avoid a deficit!" ”

“ But while the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade. That would be worse for our deficit, worse for business, worse for you, and worse for the next generation. ”

“ If this were a political demonstration—which it is not, and never should be—I might properly say that while our immediate duty is to provide for the removal of a paltry pecuniary deficit, which can be instantly effaced by a little self-denial and a slight immediate personal sacrifice there, at the heart of the Empire, the deficit to be met is one which has gone through centuries of accumulated indebtednessness—a deficit which retrenchment cannot help to extinguish nor fresh taxation efface; which can only be met and removed by heroic justice, and a statesmanship little short of inspiration. ”

“ By certain valuations, and averages, of our own striking, we come upon some sort of average terrestrial lot; this we fancy belongs to us by nature, and of indefeasible right. It is simple payment of our wages, of our deserts; requires neither thanks nor complaint; only such overplus as there may be do we account Happiness; any deficit again is Misery. ”

“ If it shall be found that for one year the net earnings have been less than 31⁄2 per cent., and for two years less than 41⁄2 per cent., unless it shall be proven that this deficit has been fostered by neglect of due economy, or by extravagant expenditure as aforesaid, the rates shall be raised. ”

“ The obligation on the part of those responsible for the expenditures made to carry on the Government, to be as economical as possible, and to make the burden of taxation as light as possible, is plain, and should be affirmed in every declaration of government policy. This is especially true when we are face to face with a heavy deficit. ”

“ A civilization which ran a chronic deficit--over-spending its income--moved year by year, through debt, inflation, currency degradation, and repudiation toward its own disintegration and ultimate bankruptcy. ”

“ The deficit amounted to more than 53 million livres, and the credit of the state was almost exhausted. He lacked the great intelligence and energy necessary for the situation, and was unable to moderate the king’s warlike tastes, or to inaugurate economic reforms. ”

“ For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals. ”

“ This is advisable because an initial deficit is often an indication of the inability of the company to be operated profitably, in which case the holding company may have to stand practically the entire deficit. ”

“ In establishing the justice of the deficit theory, the fact previously stated, that the user is the "residual investor," is of greatest force. If business under the usual conditions of developing enterprises is insufficient to meet all operating charges, pay interest, taxes and insurance and furnish a "fair return" to the investor, under practical conditions existent, a deficit is the result. ”

“ Again, revenue that comes in or doesn't go out, I certainly -- I think both whether it's a family sitting around a kitchen table doing a budget or the federal government doing a baseline budget for many years in advance, I think when you're not spending money and your budget deficit goes down, that certainly counts for a decrease in that deficit.
[REPORTER] : Does a tax increase count as savings? ”

“ The abolition of maximum prices and requisitions increased the already lavish expenditure of the Government, which, to meet the deficit in its revenues, had no resource but to create more assignats, and the faster these were issued the faster they fell in value and the higher prices rose. ”

“ Since it is not possible for the Government, by any conceivable present measures of economy, to make a saving even remotely commensurate with the size of the deficit, it is clear that more money must be found than is now being taken tn. ”

“ Our plan for economic growth is serious about deficit reduction, by asking all but the most meagerly supplied working families and the poor to make a contribution. We reduce our deficit by $500 billion. ”

“ The State requires a taxpaying machine in which there is no hitch, an exchequer in which there is never a deficit, and a public, monotonous, obedient, colorless, spiritless, moving humbly like a flock of sheep along a straight high road between two walls." ”

“ The present staggering size of the deficit—it is four times as great for the first four months of the current fiscal year as it was for the corresponding period of the previous year—has materially changed the outlook. Even some of those who previously stood against any revision of the present tax schedules have come to the reluctant conclusion that an increase, to supplement the money raised by loans, will be necessary. ”

“ But the deficit goes on increasing, until he awakes to the fact that it is becoming more serious every day: his position becomes less and less secure, and he feels himself growing poorer and poorer, while he has no expectation of this drain upon his resources coming to an end. ”

“ When we recollect how insufficient are the statements which he has from India, the right hon. Gentleman has given us as clear an account of the finances of India as it was possible for him to do, and looking at them in the most favourable point of view we come to this conclusion:—We have what we have had for twenty years, only more rapidly accumulating, deficit on deficit and debt on debt. ”

“ If the net earnings of any line fall below the stipulated rate in a particular half-year, the Government has to make good the deficit, while, if the earnings are in excess, the surplus is divided between the Government and the shareholders. ”

“ That is that the huge deficit of nearly sixteen millions is to be raised almost exclusively at the cost of the wealthy and the fairly well-to-do. They are struck at in all sorts of ways, through the income-tax, the legacy duties, the estate duties, the stamps upon their investments, their land, their royalties, their brewery dividends, and their motor-cars. ”

“ Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you’ll feel the impact. ”

“ And that is we change the desired funding level that we do so through paying for it, just as each and every family does in this country. They had "pay as you go" for quite some time and the economy grew, jobs were created and the budget deficit shrank. ”

“ It will come better from you than me, and say—what you can say with a safe conscience—that we are miserably poor, and that, though we pinch and save in every way we can, there's no reaching the end of the year without a deficit in the budget.”
“I used that unlucky phrase once before, George, and he replied, 'Why don't you cut down the estimates?'”
“I know he did. The old curmudgeon meant I should sell Nora, and he has a son, a gentleman commoner at Cambridge, that spends more in wine-parties than our whole income.”
“But it 's his own, George. It is not our money he is wasting.” ”

“ The deficit will be a bottomless pit. If stocks fall to ninety-nine, when by law sixteen millions a month must be redeemed, and if money is taken from the savings banks, the Treasury will be in a hopeless difficulty. ”

“ Meanwhile, the public sector fiscal deficit has regularly exceeded 10% of GDP - due in large part to the huge burden of interest payments, which accounted for more than 40% of central government spending in 2003. ”

“ Frequently recurring deficits are, in themselves, a condemnation of the methods under which they are found. Again, the rule of “economy” in raising revenue, or, in other words, taking as little as possible from the contributors over and above what the state receives, holds good for the whole and for each part of public revenue. In like manner the principle of formal justice has the same claim in respect to revenue as to expenditure. No class of person should bear more than his or its proper share. ”

“ He would have been dealing constantly with a surplus instead of a deficit, and could not have put the nation to shame by forcing it to hawk its paper in the money markets at the usurious rate of one per cent. ”

“ Is it not possible that some unbidden guest may have been feasting on your corn? Six hundred bushels are are a large deficit in casting up your account for the year. But you must make it up by economy and good management. ”

“ You are dull. Change a figure in footing up your cash book, so that it will balance, notwithstanding a deficit of two hundred dollars. After you come back, this can be set right again. No one will think of adding up the back columns to see if there is any fraud. ”

“ This was done by the aid of accommodations from the banks and as a consequence the deficit was large and embarrassing at the close of that year. The entire revenues of the year only amounted to $47,635.51 and the current expenses to $83,792.80, showing a deficit of $36,157.29. ”

“ Such deficits may be covered either by being regarded as a part of the investment and included in the capital upon which interest is allowed, or they may be carried until they can be written off when the earnings have so grown as to leave a surplus above a reasonable return on the investment that is large enough to permit it. When capitalized, they become a permanent charge on the consumers. ”

“ The necessary conclusion to which we are thus led is, that nothing short of a permanent improvement in the balance now subsisting between our annual income and expenditure of at least three millions sterling will suffice to place our finances in a really satisfactory condition. How, by reducing our expenditure and increasing our income, we can best obtain such a result, is the problem that we have now to solve.
'We are satisfied that there is only one course which we can properly follow. We must no longer continue to make good the deficit of each succeeding year by adding to the public debt. ”

“ Section 1.⁠Purpose.
It is essential to guarantee that the net deficit reduction achieved by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 is dedicated exclusively to reducing the deficit. Sec. 2.⁠Deficit Reduction Fund. ”

“ Yes, but earlier when the President talked about policies that have been tried and failed, he cited that he had been left with a trillion dollar deficit -- budget deficit.
GIBBS: $1.2 trillion.
[REPORTER] : $1.2 trillion. So, even more. Thank you for that. ”

“ Our determination to live within our means has brought our country out of an age of deficits into an era of surpluses. We're actually paying down the national debt, and Government spending is the smallest percentage of national income it's been since 1966. ”

“ Yet, when the rules of arithmetic confront one at every summing of his probable resources and subtracting of his fixed expenditures, and the figures, like fleshless, bony fingers, point him to deficits and unpaid bills impending, then, even while faith maintains her hold, it cannot be denied that shadows cross our path. Our friends who have helped us hitherto must expect some urgent appeals before this fiscal year is ended. The utmost economy shall be practised. ”

“ Consequently every official began at once to collect more taxes than were really due, so as to be able to cover any deficits, and also to cover his own cost of living—including not only the repayment of his debts but the acquisition of capital or land so as to rise in the social scale. ”