Michael Portillo Quotes

Today we are ending welfare as we know it.

Is there any possibility of getting the super Welfare State's honey and avoiding the sting?

What Clinton severed with his welfare reform was the obligation of the federal government to step in when the states failed and to monitor these programs.

Why is it is claimed that if people won't or can't take care of their own needs, that people in government can do it for them?

The issue I highlight in the book is welfare reform.

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.

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.

I believe in a safety net. I believe one of the responsibilities of the Federal Government is a safety net.

Those who value a strong safety net for our neediest citizens see that every extra dollar spent on these unions is a dollar that cannot go to help the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable.

We need workfare over welfare.

I know that there are many excellent arguments for a universal form of basic income. Since everyone would get it, it would remove the stigma that dogs recipients of assistance and 'entitlements'.

I think what the Conservatives have done, scaling back welfare payment, is overwhelmingly positive. There's only a certain amount of welfare they can give out.

The important thing for the government to do is to help people who cannot help themselves by providing a range of support.

Public social services, infrastructural policies, and so on are vital. But a basic income should be part of a package of reforms.

We do know the welfare system, starting in the '60s, basically encouraged the dissolution of marriage, encouraged families to separate in order to get the benefits.

I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No.

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

We will not cut one penny from the safety net until we've cut every penny from corporate welfare.

The welfare system was designed to do something different when it was started than what it does now. It was a safety net to help people get back to work: if they were sick, it would help them get back.

On the one hand we have got to ask, are there some areas of universal benefits that are no longer affordable? But on the other hand let us look at the issue of dependency where we have trapped people in poverty through the extent of welfare that they have.

There was no welfare state, and people had to rely mainly on the Poor Law - that was all the state provided. It was very degrading, very humiliating. And there was a means test for receiving poor relief.

Tax credits are designed to help people who work hard but who, through no fault of their own, don't earn enough to keep their families out of poverty.

I don't believe in welfare.

While the rest of the country is still talking about welfare reform, Texas is implementing it.

There are lots of people depending on the government who are good, honest citizens who have worked all their lives.