Peter Cove Quotes

The government’s unprecedented expenditures failed to bring about the decline in poverty that Johnson had promised. Instead, they made things worse.

Not only does big government get in the way when it provides disincentives to work, it also has a profoundly negative effect on community. […] The more the government does for individuals, the more community is diminished.

This may sound like common sense, but the unfortunate reality is that objective self-review and recalibration are rarely the norm with most social programs. The widespread belief that commitment, good intentions, and good deeds are enough carries the day.

We used to wage war on poverty—not poor people.

Welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic have discovered that largesse to losers does not reduce their hostility to society, but only increases it. Far from producing gratitude, generosity is seen as an admission of guilt, and the reparations as inadequate compensations for injustices - leading to worsening behavior by the recipients.

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

The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.

I don't like a lot of social programs either because it makes you non-productive.

Today we are ending welfare as we know it.

If we can spend the money to put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to find the funds to put a man on his feet.

We don’t want to turn this [social] safety net into a hammock that ends up lulling people in their lives into dependency and complacency.

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

Is our national goal to place as many people on welfare, food stamp support, as we can possibly put on that program? Is that our goal? Is that a moral vision for the United States of America, just to see how many people we can place in a situation where they're dependent on the federal government for their food?

Relief, or redistribution of income, voluntary or coerced, is never the true solution of poverty, but at best a makeshift, which may mask the disease and mitigate the pain, but provides no basic cure.

The seeds of today's runaway government were planted when it was decided that government should help those who can't help themselves. From that modest, compassionate beginning to today's out-of-control mega-state, there's a straight, unbroken line. Once the door was open, once it was settled that the government should help some people at the expense of others, there was no stopping it.

The welfare state may be well-intentioned, but it is a Ponzi scheme

Some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won.

Public policy today is favoring the rich, not the poor. It's not addressing the needs of the poor.

Between 1965 (the beginning of LBJ's "Great Society") and 1994, welfare spending has cost the taxpayers $5.4 trillion in constant 1993 dollars. The War on Poverty has cost us 70 % more than the total price tag for defeating both Germany and Japan in World War II, after adjusting for inflation. Many believe that Welfare has destroyed millions of families and cost a huge portion of our national wealth in the process.

The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly, and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.

The matter of social security and these grants is to help to address the levels of poverty in the country.

Poverty is no disgrace. But it is certainly not a recommendation.

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.

Poor America, of what avail is all her wealth, if the individuals comprising the nation are wretchedly poor? If they live in squalor, in filth, in crime, with hope and joy gone, a homeless, soulless army of human prey.

The United States has more people living in poverty than at almost any time in the modern history of our country. I believe that in a democratic, civilized society none of our people should be hungry or living in desperation. We need to expand Social Security, not cut it. We need to increase funding for nutrition programs, not cut them.