James Buchanan Quotes

The Welfare State is merely a method for transforming the market economy step by step into socialism.

Throughout history, politicians have used other people's property to buy themselves power. That is the primary achievement of the welfare state.

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 think most Americans believe in a basic social safety net.

I wrote my thesis on welfare policy.

One of the things that made the marriage between liberty and popular sovereignty possible was the welfare state. Democracy has three parts. It has liberty, it has popular sovereignty, and it has a social safety net as well

They proclaim that every man is entitled to exist without labor and, the laws of reality to the contrary notwithstanding, is entitled to receive his 'minimum sustenance' his food, his clothes, his shelter with no effort on his part, as his due and his birthright. To receive it from whom.

Europeans call it socialism, Americans call it welfare, and Barack Obama calls it change.

Compassion is good but politicians have turned compassion into the welfare state.

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.

There are two important things to remember about 'entitlements': They are hugely popular programs for a very good reason, and actual sensible 'reform' would mean improving them, not sacrificing them at the altar of 'fiscal responsibility.'

I don't believe in welfare.

No major entitlement, once it has been implemented, has ever been unwound.

Western–style redistributive programs-progressive taxation, social security, unemployment insurance-should be encouraged, but at least in the short run, they have limited potential. There simply is not enough to tax, and nearly no one can be trusted to transfer revenues.

It’s been a very slow, very expensive business—reforming the welfare state.

Welfare is killing this country.

A welfare state, properly conceived, can be an integral part of a conservative society.

Social Security works better than any other program in the world. Why dismantle it now?

There is much in American society which I admire, but I have long held the view that the absence of an effective safety net in that country means that too many needy citizens fall by the wayside.

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.

Our country is the richest in the history of the world. We should be working to expand and improve successful programs like Medicare, and offer more to our citizens.

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 original purpose of the welfare state was to lift people into self-sufficiency, not to create a permanent underclass dependent on taxpayers.