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

I think where I differ a little bit, we absolutely have to think about the deficit looking down the road. And certainly that's something the president has said that we need to, as the economy recovers, have a plan in place for getting it down.

I said we are going to balance an $11 billion budget deficit in a $29 billion budget, so by percentage, the largest budget deficit in America, by percentage, larger than California, larger than New York, larger than Illinois. And we're going to balance that without raising taxes on the people of the state of New Jersey.

If we weren't running deficits, if we weren't spending more than we were taking in, there would be no reason whatsoever to increase the debt ceiling.

We are in a bit of a policy box and it's going to require us being willing to give up one of the two, which is it's okay to take on more deficits but lets put in some massive spending. Alternatively to say, 'we're going to go through structural unemployment for a while because we want to address deficits.'

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.

Our priority must be to build a path towards balancing the budget, and we cannot tolerate growing deficits.

The American people will eventually get hurt by this accumulated deficit. That's the problem. We have too much deficit. We have to find a solution.

We have to reduce the burden placed on our economy by years of deficits and debt.

What we should be doing is responsibly addressing the primary drivers of our debt and deficit issues.