Mario Cuomo Quotes

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.

The relief now given by the Poor Laws is so widely extended that no man of humanity could venture to propose their immediate abolition.

Poor young children and the elderly must be fed at public expense.

I’m really not concerned about the very poor. They have a safety net.

I believe that conservative solutions can help families of every race, every economic background, and every town in Oklahoma.

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.

I think we will begin to see some real efforts made to do things like protecting Social Security and Medicare.

I don't think you expand entitlements when so many people are dependent on government and when the money the federal government is offering is going to be taken away from you after just a couple of years.

Like all good citizens, the elderly and people with disabilities want to eradicate waste and fraud from government, but helping people with special needs meet their basic needs doesn't fit this description.

After-school tutoring programs, care for the elderly, shelters for the homeless, disaster relief work, and a variety of other services would all benefit from government funding.

With fewer resources to share around more people, how can the poor have improved lifestyles?

If you can take my tax money and assure me that it'll go to the right purpose, that it will help the poor, then fine. But I'm not sure a lot of it does. In fact, I know a lot of it doesn't.

To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.

You measure a government by how few people need help.

When our economy is not growing, those least able to look after themselves are the first thrown overboard ...

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.

Society’s willingness to provide for the poor among them increases when the standard of living is advancing.

[Describing France:] Every place swarms with beggars ... because the Poor depend upon private Charity for Support, instead of being provided for by Parishes as in England or Towns in America.

I don't think they [Congress] ought to balance their budget on the backs of the poor.

What should we do with this projected surplus? I have a simple four-word answer: Save Social Security first.

… taking money from the thrifty to keep the improvident

A New Dealer regrets poverty and deplores the fact that it is necessary for society to slough off its misfits as an individual sheds his impurities and his diseases. But New Dealers believe that human want and human distress should be prevented or at least ameliorated.

Bribing rich people to help poor people, rather than helping poor people directly, is a popular approach because the cost of tax breaks doesn't show up on the government books.

Those who say we can continue to indefinitely borrow from our children and grandchildren and generations to come in fact are eroding our ability to do what we ought to do in education, in health care and in other things.