Roberto Azevedo Quotes

From the Medicare prescription drug plan to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the passage of No Child Left Behind, President Bush presided over a major expansion of the reach of government.

Let me tell you exactly what we would do on Social Security. Yes, we'd raise the retirement age two years and phase it in over 25 years; that means we'd raise it one month a year for 25 years when we're all living longer, and living better lives.

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.

A majority of Americans support Social Security and Medicare, a progressive tax system and a government that regulates business in the public interest, but most share deep skepticism about the government's ability to do all this well.

The White House has embarked on a mission to convince the people of our country that Social Security is in dire need of drastic change in order to save it for all workers.

Social Security has been effective for 70 years; prior predictions of its demise have been totally overstated.

The country will also need 'new forms of social welfare' instead of its current system which is excessively centred on pensions.

When I look at Social Security, I consider it the most important social program in the United States, arguably the most successful program in the world.

The Social Security trust fund is in pretty good shape today and we should not embark upon risky, dangerous schemes which will, in fact, undermine Social Security, such as privatization.

The promise of Social Security was reflected in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inter-generational compact that rewards hard work and provides retirement security.

There's no conflict between the social-welfare state and open markets.

Our Hispanic community needs to understand how important the Social Security system is for not only its retired citizens, but also its disabled workers.

Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break.

Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workers' pension funds. Why do that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers?

I think the quality of something like the Beveridge, for instance, will have a life of its own.

Devolutionary reform will not provide a factory, a machine or jobs, build a school, train a doctor or put a pound on pensions.

Social Security is unequivocally the one contract the country is overwhelmingly in favor of.

The Social Security System is the one great social policy achievement of the twentieth century.

The way to get elected was to keep the market economy humming while cushioning people against its inevitable risks through ever more lavish social programs.

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

The division of responsibility between economics and politics is indeed one of the most difficult dilemmas with which we are confronted. "Give me a sound economic position, and I will pursue a sound policy", says the Statesman. "How can I pursue a sound policy", says the Economist, "if you do not give me a sound political position?”

We cannot realize financial reconstruction and enhance social security without a strong economy.

We will battle day and night to pass social security reform.

When faced with economic uncertainty, people don't want freedom. When they can't see their economic future, they want the nanny state.

Across Europe, not just in the U.K., the old Beveridge and Bismarckian variants of the welfare state have been dismantled. In their place has been erected a mish-mash of means-tested, behaviour-tested social assistance, with a growing tendency to force young unemployed into workfare schemes, which are helping to depress real wages.