Admiral Mike Mullen

"[Debt is] the single greatest threat to national security."

Alan Greenspan

"I have long argued that paying down the national debt is beneficial for the economy: it keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes."

Ben Franklin

"Creditors have better memories than debtors"

Calvin Coolidge

"I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form."

Erskine Bowles

"The debt is like a cancer [that is] truly going to destroy the country from within."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I do not see how, as a matter of practical sense, a Government running behind two billion dollars annually can consider the anticipation of bonus payment until it has a balanced budget, not only on paper, but with a surplus of cash in the treasury."

George Washington

"As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible."

"No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable."

Herbert Hoover

"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."

"I am confident that the undertaking of the representatives of both political parties to balance the budget remains and will be fulfilled. It is the very keystone of recovery. It must be done. Without it the several measures for restoration of public confidence and reconstruction which we have already undertaken will be incomplete and the depression prolonged indefinitely."

"One of the first requirements to the accomplishment of the absolute necessity of a balanced budget is that the people and all their organizations should support and not obstruct the Members of Congress in sound efforts to both reduce expenditures and adjust taxation."

James Madison

"I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other."

"I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit."

Ronald Reagan

"Can we, who man the ship of state, deny it is somewhat out of control? Our national debt is approaching $1 trillion. A few weeks ago I called such a figure, a trillion dollars, incomprehensible, and I've been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is. And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you'd be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high."

"Most Americans understand the need for a balanced budget, and most Americans have seen how difficult it is for the Congress to withstand the pressures for more spending. This amendment will force government to stay within the limit of its revenues. Government will have to do what each of us does with our own family budgets – spend no more than we can afford."

"Only a constitutional amendment will do the job. We’ve tried the carrot, and it failed. With the stick of a Balanced Budget Amendment, we can stop government squandering, overtaxing ways, and save our economy."

Thomas Jefferson

"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing."

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale"

"But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years."

"The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression."

"I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude."

"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."