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The overarching lesson: Bringing the deficit down to sustainable levels takes big changes. Little ones won’t do it.

— David Wessel Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

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More quotes by David Wessel

That’s another problem with budgeting: the public makes woefully wrong assumptions about virtually every aspect of it.

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

Eliminating the federal workforce entirely would have pared the federal budget deficit in 2011 by only one-third.

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

In classical tragedy, this is known as the denouement. In Washington, it could be just farce.

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

Today, the idea that a president could appeal to a mixed-party center to win approval of any measure seems as quaint is a typewriter.

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

Adjusted for inflation, the federal government spent more on Medicare and Medicaid in 2011 than it spent on everything in 1960.

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: David Wessel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.