John F. Kennedy Quotes
Merely responding with a “relief check” to complicated social and personal problems … is not likely to provide a lasting solution. Such a check must be supplemented with … by positive services and solutions offering the total resources of the community to meet the total needs of family to help our less fortunate citizens help themselves.
John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, 35th President of the United States (Democrat, MA), Message to Congress, February 2, 1961
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time, this was a radical idea. Even into the 21st century, despite the general academic and political conviction that lack of a job is one of the biggest factors in preventing criminal activity and re-incarceration, there are very few communities that use this approach.
What makes this a noteworthy political quotation is that when he made the statement, his party had lurched to the radical right and almost no one else in the Republican party would publicly say that the Federal Government had any legitimate role that involved social services, food distribution, welfare or health care. Also the Republican Presidential candidate the day before had been discovered writing off the poorest 43 percent of the country. Heller however, was up for reelection in a state what was hit much harder than most in the Great Recession and without Federal Assistance many state residents would be in terrible circumstances and Heller would not fare well in the election if he took the then required Republican ideology. Also, Heller came from a blue collar family and had a much different outlook than most Republicans of that particular time.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his work as president concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to becoming president.
