Harriet Harman Quotes

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.

Today we are ending welfare as we know it.

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.

For many of those who had historically supported welfare programs in the broadest sense, it was perfectly reasonable to enact legislation in which poor people were the objects of efforts to assist them.

The government is becoming the family of last resort.

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.

I regularly help constituents who have had problems with the benefits system.

If someone believes that living on benefits is a lifestyle choice, then we need to make them think again.

Contrary to what President Obama said in his inaugural address, going on Medicare and food stamps does not strengthen us. Just ask people who are fourth-generation welfare recipients.

Unless they have disabilities to cope with, no family should get more from living on benefits than the average family gets from going out to work. No more open-ended chequebook.

The concept of doing something with child benefit, of changing the rules around child benefit, is something that has been being discussed for some time.

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.

Conservatives were sure that if you eliminated welfare for single moms, it would eliminate - or at lease greatly reduce - single motherhood. So in 1996 we had welfare reform. Did not change the trend in the least. Soon half of all babies will be born out of wedlock.

Promoting dependency is the Democratic Party's vocation. It knows that almost all entitlements are forever, and those that are not - e.g., the lifetime eligibility for welfare, repealed in 1996 - are not for the middle class.

Reduction of dependency is the greatest unmet need in social policy today.

There are very few people on welfare who like it.

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

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.

A major goal of good government is that the people with gray hair should not be seen carrying burdens on the street.

Most Americans get that there is a need for a safety net in our country, and we support that safety net.

Putting women first would mean strengthening America's social safety net, because a higher proportion of single-mother families live in poverty here than in any other wealthy country.

Social safety-net spending is an important form of public funding that helps offset disparities in family resources for children.

Drug testing for recipients of various welfare programs - I really think that's something that needs to be considered.

What we have to do is find a way to divide and conquer the people who are on assistance.