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Well, I think what we need to remember is that budget deficits can impede economic activity.

My hope is that we're going to be more strategic and focused as we look for a way to address the long-term deficit and debt issues that are affecting this nation.

The reason we have such a reform budget is because we've been thinking about these things for a long time.

In my political career, I'd like to see a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

I think that all areas of the budget have to be scrubbed. Clearly the entitlement issues have to be reformed and that's an issue that's going to require I think some strong bipartisan cooperation and leadership.

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.

We are absolutely going to have to provide fiscal security to people; in other words, we are going to have to show the country and the world that the country can live within its means.

We have to change economic policy: create confidence, foster investment, cut the public deficit, restructure taxation and reform the labor laws.

It certainly would be helpful going forward for deficit reduction efforts to focus on the medium term while not subtracting from the impetus we need to keep a fragile economy moving forward.

I have spoken about deficits, and I think deficits are important because they address broad economic and financial stability. We need to talk about that.