Budget 2024 Primer – Interesting and Whacky quotes on budget

11 Jan 2024 , 12:13 PM

Perhaps the most famous quote in the budget was given by George Bernard Shah, when he said those immortal lines, “The Budget is an attempt to equate one’s earning capacity with yearning capacity.” That probably captures the essence of all types of budgets; be it the household budget, corporate budget, or a national budget. In all the cases, it is about far ends and scarce means. And that is why every budget has to be about getting more bang for the buck. Here we present a collection of quotes on the budget that are at times serious and at times whacky; but they are insightful nevertheless. Finally, we turn to a rare moment in budget speeches when the then Finance Minister said “Mein Shaayar Hoon” and went on to reel out some amazing pieces of wisdom in Urdu, Hindi, English and, at times, even in Tamil.

When budget quotes were serious and insightful

What is the first thought that comes to your mind when it comes to a Union Budget? Obviously, it is about receipts and spending and it is about deficits. But, more than anything, the budget in an opportunity for the government to make a statement about what it stands for. As the former United States Senator Mary Landrieu best summed up the role of the budget, “A budget should reflect the values and priorities of our nation and its people.” 

One of the things most budgets try to achieve is to ensure that each rupee or dollar is well spent. After all, if you can cut out the wastage in any budget and plug the leakages, that is almost half the job done. That was best summed up by the South African TV presenter Pru Leith, in her rather metaphorical statement by comparing the budget with a palate, “You can serve good food on a budget provided you don’t waste it.”

No discussion of the budget is complete without talking about deficits; something India has been running for many years. The US Ambassador to Israel, best summed up the need to check deficits in his now famous quote, “We cannot win the future, expand the economy, and spur job creation if we are saddled with increasingly growing deficits. The budget must be a comprehensive and responsible plan that puts the nation on a path toward fiscal sustainability. It is like a down payment to tackle long term challenges.”

As much as avoiding deficits is a noble venture, in most budgets, it is just not possible. The budget being balanced is not a practical goal at most times. As William Vickrey, the Canadian-American thinker put it, “Deficits do not in themselves produce inflation, nor does a balanced budget assure a stable price level.” On this subject, the former Chancellor of the British Exchequer, George Osborne, goes a step further. He is quite emphatic that “Just as we should never balance the budget on the backs of the poor, so it is an economic delusion to think you can balance it only on the wallets of the rich.” Clearly, for most political thinkers, it looks like having a deficit is the easier option than trying to take a call between one section of the population and the other.

One of the arguments in favour of deficits is that such deficits should not worry if they are resulting in higher economic growth. After all, it means that the borrowings are being channelled into product avenues that generate income and jobs. This was best summed up by the US Senator, Mitt Romney, “The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or by cutting spending. It is by encouraging the growth of the economy.” That is the typical monetarist view, and you really cannot argue with that. Perhaps a more rational and complete definition of the budget came from the US Representative, Nancy Pelosi, “What we are discussing privately and publicly, is a budget which is a blueprint for the future. It creates jobs, educates our children, provides healthcare for all Americans, which takes our deficit down, which gives a tax cut for 95% of the American people.” One can argue that this looks more like an extract out of Thomas More’s Utopia, but you really cannot question the intent and completeness of this definition of what any budget should actually be.

Finally, on a more serious note, there is a risk that if budget targets are too steep, it may impel the budget minds to manufacture numbers. As the American economist, Thomas Sowell, put it “Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets.” Unfortunately, being impractical about budget expectations result in creative accounting rather than creative solutions. 

At the end of the day, the one thing  that every budget must learn is to cut the coat according to the cloth. This was best summed up by the Brazilian politician Jaime Lerner, “If you want creativity, take a zero off your budget. However, if you want sustainability, take off two zeros.” That sums up what the real focus of any budget should be.

When budget quotes were whacky, yet insightful

The thing about quotable quotes is that they become a lot more popular when they are whacky, rather than when they are too grave and ponderous. Here we look at a collection of some extremely whacky budget quotes. However, it is not to detract from the insights hidden behind each of these seeming whacky and light hearted quotes. Here we delve into the realm of some real whacky quotable quotes.

One question that people normally ask is why do nations still run such big deficits after years of practicing budget making. The answer was given by the American writer, William Feather, “A budget tells us what we cannot afford, but it does not really keep us from buying it.” And that is the reason budgets don’t seem to work. However, the fact also remains that the best way for a nation to create wealth is to have a budget and stick to it. As business consultant, Eric Worre said it best, “Becoming rich is hard. Staying broke is hard. Choose your hard.”

What are the guiding principles to any budget. Actually, there are two guiding principles. The first is that the process needs to start. You can be at the drawing board for ever. As the legendary black rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr, said it best, “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” That applies to Union Budgets too. Make a start and the rest will follow. However, the British Philosopher, Edmund Burke, was a lot more forthright about the Budget being a means and not an end. As he summed it up in his inimitable style, “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” That is something you can achieve with a budget.

Let us understand budget at a more generic level, after all, the rules are the same. The need for a good and solid budgeting strategy was best brought out by American actor Will Rogers, “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” That is so often true for individuals, corporates, households, and nations. But a more  granular definition of the budget process was provided by the Ugandan lawyer Rosette Mugidde Wamambe, “Budgeting is not just for people who do not have enough money. It is actually for everyone who wants to ensure that their money is enough.” 

Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post made an interesting point that, “The difference between budgeting and not budgeting is the difference between making things happen and letting things happen.” The budget at any level is not just about numbers, but it is about the philosophy that you should know where the last penny is going. It is about starting to save and cutting your coat according to your cloth. As the Australian actor FM Alexander put out the process flow very succinctly, “People or nations do not decide their futures. They just decide their habits, and their habits decides their future.” The point is that be it individuals or nations, saving and living within your means is a habit to be cultivated early.

There are few who have offered insights through whacky quotations as eloquently as Warren Buffett has. To quote Buffett, “Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.” If individuals and nations focused more on this aspect, budgets would be a lot simpler and also a lot more meaningful. And to top this whacky segment, the most interesting quote came from an anonymous contributor, “Budgeting is not about limiting yourself. It is about making the things that excite you possible.” Be it an individual, a household, a corporate or a government; that remains the theme of any budget.

When Finance Ministers said, “Mein Shaayar Hoon”

Let  us finally take a look at some memorable quotes that were part of the budget speeches of finance ministers in the many budgets since independence. Dr Manmohan Singh, a very reticent politician, was known for his Urdu couplets. Out of all his budget quotes, the one during the epochal 1991 budget stands out for its vision and audacity. Dr Singh quoted the French philosopher and writer, Victor Hugo, “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea. Let the whole world hear it loud and clear. India is now wide awake. We shall prevail. We shall overcome.’ A full 34 years later, we cannot help but remember the significance of his words.

Yashwant Sinha, with his bureaucratic background and his power of repartee, was also known for his quotes. However, this quote was not part of the Millennial Budget, but a year later in 2001, “Taqaazaa hai waqt ka ke toofaan se joojho, kahaan tak chaloge kinaare kinaare?’. When translated into English, it reads, “The times require you to battle the storms. How long will you keep walking the shore?” But as they say, the sentiments you can convey through Urdu can never be matched by English.

Another very well timed quotation was by Nirmala Sitharaman in the 2021 budget, as India was just about recovering from the COVID pandemic effects. In her budget speech, she quoted Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore thus, ‘Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.’ Coming in the aftermath of the pandemic and the generally low spirits of the people, that was surely uplifting.