When I left Washington, we actually had a balanced budget and we paid down the most amount of the national debt in modern history and cut taxes and created jobs. And I was the chief architect of that plan in '97.

I'm for a balanced budget now.

I was the chairman of the House Budget Committee and one of the chief architects the last time we balanced a budget, and it was the first time we had done it since man walked on the moon. We had a $5 trillion surplus and we cut taxes.

Bush has never sent over a balanced budget.

We still have a major problem in debt with America that we have to find efficiencies in government to get us back to a balanced budget.

I would submit a balanced budget if elected president, and it would be painful.