Leadership Quote by Jim Costa

“Honest budgeting” is doing a lot of political work here. Jim Costa isn’t just lamenting red ink; he’s reframing what counts as responsible governance. The line flips a comforting assumption - that transparency shrinks problems - into a warning: look too closely and the numbers get worse. That inversion is the hook. It grants Costa the posture of candor while also preparing the audience for a bleak takeaway: the deficit we argue about is the deficit we’re willing to admit.

The specific intent is defensive and preemptive. By citing “the financial report,” he borrows institutional authority, shifting blame from policy choices to accounting reality. If the deficit expands under “honest” methods, then today’s smaller figure starts to look like a product of gimmicks: rosy projections, off-book obligations, temporary patches sold as solutions. Costa’s language quietly suggests that prior budgets - possibly bipartisan, possibly inherited - have been managed like narratives, not ledgers.

Subtextually, it’s also an argument for political cover. If fiscal reality is worse than advertised, then future pain (spending cuts, tax hikes, program trims) can be presented not as ideological aggression but as overdue housekeeping. The phrase “if we got into” implies the problem isn’t ignorance but willpower: leaders have avoided honesty because honesty has consequences.

Context matters: this is a politician speaking inside a system where “deficit” is both economic metric and rhetorical weapon. Costa is trying to control the frame before opponents do, betting that voters will reward the performance of truth-telling even if the truth is unpleasant.