Jane Mayer Quotes

If we have more people on the receiving end of government - more people as the middle class becomes sucked in more and more to these entitlement programs, for example - then we're going to be in a place where it's going to be hard to go back. It's going to be hard to go back again. It's going to be hard to take away stuff. It's not impossible.

Social Security and Medicare represent promises made and we must keep these commitments.

Americans oppose public intervention or regulation if it helps others, but favor it if it helps them — take social security, disaster relief, public works projects, for example.

Believe me, every American, every person in this country, if I have anything to say about it, will know precisely what is going on with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because they are beginning to appoint people who are typical right-wing Republicans who want to privatize and cut Social Security.

Government aid programs have been endlessly expanded, and the government has sought to maximize the number of people willing to accept handouts..... Roughly half of all Americans are dependent on the government, either for handouts, pensions, or paychecks.

Welfare makes you dependent upon someone to take care of you.

You know, I think that the Republicans have made it really clear that they want to end the so-called social safety net from cradle to grave.

The central question is whether Medicare and Medicaid should remain entitlement programs guaranteeing a certain amount of care, as Democrats believe, or become defined contribution programs in which federal spending is capped, as Republicans suggest.

No one was elected to Congress because he or she promised to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

Democrats are fighting fire with fire. Our principled stance on Medicare and Social Security is absolutely no different than the Republicans' stance on no revenue increases without cuts.

As more people rely on government programs, the harder it becomes to conduct the necessary reforms to preserve them to help our society's most vulnerable.

I don't believe in welfare.

I was once a welfare recipient and am very aware of the successes and failures of this critical safety net. There are those that would have us believe that those receiving TANF benefits are lazy, shiftless, freeloaders who are just sitting around thinking of another way to suckle from the government teat.

Could we do without the social safety net, without Social Security, without Medicare, without farm subsidies, without unemployment compensation, without school lunch programs, without housing assistance? Of course we could. But we would not be a civilized society and we would not be an American nation any of us would be proud of.

Today we are ending welfare as we know it.

55 percent of the national budget consists of entitlements. These are established by law but do not get funds appropriated annually—not part of the usual give and take of the Congress and the administration. If you meet the criteria of the law, you get the money.

Even in the United States, 'you have a sort of welfare state, even if you don't want to admit it -- you don't allow people to die on the street.

The vast majority of Americans—about 96 percent—benefit from some kind of government social program.

Democrats need to stand strong against any efforts to cut benefits to Social Security and Medicare.

We are not for cutting social welfare and are for more health care.

People like entitlements. That's why we spend so much on them.

We should be reforming our entitlement programs to empower people.

The welfare state, which grew out of post-war solidarity, has for decades been based on the principle that those who pay into the system are entitled to expect that the safety net will be there for them when they fall on hard times.

Social Security is not broke, and Social Security does not need to be privatized.

Madoff's scam was small compared to Ponzi schemes the government itself runs: Social Security and Medicare.