From a Cicero fan in Tallahassee:

The quotation you used may be apocryphal, but Cicero still has something to teach us on fiscal policy. Regarding the current administration’s proposal to “cram down” mortgage debt, here’s Cicero writing on a proposed “abolition of debts”:
“Tabulae vero novae quid habent argumenti, nisi ut emas mea pecunia fundum, eum tu habeas, ego non habeam pecuniam.”
This means, roughly, “What is the meaning of a ‘clean slate’, except that you purchase a farm with my money, that you still have the farm, but I no longer have my money?”
(From Book II of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Obligations)).