Tipper Gore Quotes

The government is becoming the family of last resort.

There is a role for government, but no matter how much money the government spends, it will never be able to take the place of parents and strong families.

The institution of the family has very few friends in Washington. There are lobbyists in Washington for every possible entity, from the possum-growers of America to every kind of crazy thing. There's somebody in Washington paid to advance the cause of that particular business, but there's not a lot of support for the family.

No intelligent government can continue to ignore the urgent priority of giving support and practical encouragement to marriage and family stability as the first response to growing social needs.

When government grows, it breaks the family.

We regard education as a means of safeguarding the family from too great a reliance upon the state rather than as a means for the state to take over the responsibilities of the family.

The family is the original Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The state can destroy families, but it can rarely save families.

Everything we do as a government is focused on getting help and support for hard-working Australian families. We are standing up for them.

The administration cannot very well let its social program down because of adverse Supreme Court decisions .

The role of government is to encourage—not discourage.

Never in the history of American politics has there been a constituency so popular but with so little political clout as the American family.

The real needs of the people ought never give way to the imaginary wants of the state.

The middle class is not a fact of nature. It is partly the product of social engineering by the government.

Americans oppose public intervention or regulation if it helps others, but favor it if it helps them — take social security, disaster relief, public works projects, for example.

Take this question of the payment of taxes which seems uppermost in many people's minds. It is true that you may work twice as hard and that when your income is above a certain amount, you may retain for yourself a much smaller percentage of the fruits of your labor. Perhaps the day will come when the man who is paying a high income tax will say to himself "This is proof of my patriotism. The measures which are supported by this money are what make my country a better place to live in. They insure to me and to my children a greater security under the form of government which I have chosen." We may pay high taxes but if it means that many hard working people have better lives, I am glad to do so. I am entirely in accord with the idea that it is hardly worthwhile to try to give a better way of life to those who will not work and help themselves, but there are many, many people who work hard and for one reason or another have very little return for their labor.

Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response.

We have not abandoned our old belief in liberty, justice, and Self-help, but we say that under certain conditions the people cannot help themselves, and that then they should be helped by the State representing directly the whole people.

The object of Socialism is not to render the individual capable of living on his personal resources. That is the theory of radical individualism. Its object is to create in him a greater and greater sense of his dependence upon the state, and, at the same time, to inculcate in him the conviction that he is a part of it and that he has a duty and responsibility toward the state; and that only in so far as he fulfills this duty can he benefit by the advantages of a complete personal and social life.

… government policy should favor married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators, Working women … are detrimental to the family man's basic nature is inclined towards evil, and when the exercise of liberty takes the shape of pornography, drug abuse, or homosexuality, the government must restrain, punish, and deter

There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first.

You can't run a government solely on a business basis ... Government should be human. It should have a heart.

Unless we work to strengthening the family, … all the rest : schools, and playgrounds, and public assistance, and private concern, will never be enough to cut completely the circle of despair and deprivation.

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.

No government should ever be big enough to substitute for the family.