And so our goal on health care is if we can get instead of health care costs going up 6 percent a year it's going up at the level of inflation maybe just slightly above inflation we've made huge progress. And by the way that is the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit. That's why we did it.

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want - and their kids pay for it.

The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect.

The only thing growing faster than the federal government's deficit is Chris Matthews' man-crush on Barack Obama.

To reduce deficit spending and our enormous debt you reign in spending. You cut the budget. You don't take more from the private sector and grow government with it. And that's exactly what Obama has in mind with this expiration of Bush tax cuts proposal of his.

Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.

Whether they run a record company or a grocery store every boss will tell you you're in big trouble if you're borrowing more than you can ever afford to pay back. Delaying the pain for future generations is suicidal. We've got to start getting the deficit down right now not next year.

The TUC's new slogan 'a future that works' sets a profound challenge. Austerity and rapid deficit reduction is failing in its own terms but even at its best it is short-sighted muddle-through politics with no vision of a new economic model.

What we're discussing privately and publicly is a budget which is a blueprint for the future which creates jobs which educates our children which provides healthcare for all Americans which takes our deficit down which gives a tax cut for 95% of the American people.

Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation's competitive needs.

Deficits mean future tax increases pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.

Don't forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past present and future wars.

Europe is difficult to coordinate and our main deficit may not even lie in this area of finance and economics but in foreign and security policy. We have a leadership problem because we are still 27 different members who have still not decided on how to work with each other based on what we used to call a European constitution.

But because we in the United States finance our current account deficit by borrowing in our own currency we can move to a more competitive dollar without the adverse effects that followed currency declines in other countries.

To finance this trade deficit the U.S. has to borrow from the rest of the world or sell American assets like stocks businesses and real estate to the rest of the world.

The only way that we can reduce our financial dependence on the inflow of funds from the rest of the world is to reduce our trade deficit.

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