Thoughts on budget

By Forbes India

Published: Jan 20, 2018 06:24:46 AM IST

We might come closer to balancing the budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
—Ronald Reagan

A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.
—William Feather

If we can’t find cuts in the defence budget, we’re not looking carefully enough.
—Jon Huntsman Jr

The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.
—Ross Perot

It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.
—George W Bush

Budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations.
—Jacob Lew

The budget evolved from a management tool into an obstacle to management.
—Frank Carlucci

If you want creativity, take a zero off your budget. If you want sustainability, take off two zeros.
—Jaime Lerner

Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.

—Joe Biden

This budget reflects a choice—not an easy choice, but the right choice. And when you think about it, the only choice. The choice to take the responsible, prudent path to fiscal stability, economic growth and opportunity.
—George Pataki

Image: Huntsman: Larry French/ Getty Images; Bush: James Lawler Duggan/ Reuters; Lew: Beck Diefenbach/ Reuters; Reagen: Stelios Varias/ Reuters; Carlucci: Terri Ashe/ Getty Images; Lerner: Mike Blake/ Reuters; Pataki: Brian Snyder/ Reuters

(This story appears in the 30 November, -0001 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)