Robert Bixby Quotations

He's blazing a trail. He's taking a more public role in warning about these issues than his predecessors have.

It is clear that the debt limit must be increased. Failure to approve an increase would have dire consequences for government finances and financial markets. Delaying action on an increase until the last possible moment, forcing Treasury to utilize extraordinary measures to avoid a default, is unnecessary and irresponsible. However, under the current fiscal circumstances approving a large-scale increase in the debt limit without a plan to restore fiscal discipline would also be irresponsible.

That would undermine the whole concept of fiscal discipline.

The deficit is like an unhealthy habit. You can keep doing things you know aren't good for you. You know that somewhere down the road you're going to pay a price. But you keep doing those bad things, anyway.

We're trying to get the message out to people outside of Washington that we have these big challenges in front of us. We definitely want to target the business community. They need to step up to the plate here.

The Gore approach to budget surpluses is much more prudent; the Bush approach to structural reforms of the entitlement programs is more promising. They have set up a good dichotomy that people can look at.

Unanimously, the budget groups in Washington have been calling for offsets. But only a few members of Congress seem willing to do it.

In a way, you've left yourself no choice, because the budget, as it turned out, wasn't any better prepared than New Orleans.

It's a lot of bang for not much buck. It doesn't bode well for more substantial deficit-reduction bills that are needed.

This is where they have to make it all add up, and it doesn't.