Al Gore Quotes

The Democrats generally recoil from the subject of entitlements.

Congress may spend money in aid of the "general welfare.

In fact, entitlement spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up 54% of federal spending, and spending is projected to double within the next decade. Medicare is growing by 9% annually, and Medicaid by 8% annually.

The automatic stabilizer is unemployment insurance, food stamps, additional coverage of Medicaid.

No one was elected to Congress because he or she promised to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

Social Security has not contributed to the deficit problem.

Many seniors understand that Social Security is social insurance as opposed to a program where we put money aside for our own retirement. But most elderly individuals think they're getting their money back. So it isn't selfishness as much as a misunderstanding.

I don't support getting rid of Social Security.

The Missourians I hear from just don't buy the idea that the only way to tackle the national debt is to drastically alter Medicare and Social Security.

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

When you talk about entitlement programs, it's not just about - it's not about cutting those programs. It is about saving those programs. Those programs are on a path of fiscal unsustainability.

Could we do without the social safety net, without Social Security, without Medicare, without farm subsidies, without unemployment compensation, without school lunch programs, without housing assistance? Of course we could. But we would not be a civilized society and we would not be an American nation any of us would be proud of.

What the government gives it must first take away.

The Social Security Trust Fund should not be trusted and it is not funded.

To deal with entitlements we must either raise taxes, cut benefits, or borrow inordinate amounts of money.

55 percent of the national budget consists of entitlements. These are established by law but do not get funds appropriated annually—not part of the usual give and take of the Congress and the administration. If you meet the criteria of the law, you get the money.

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

It is extremely difficult to rescind entitlements to which people think they are legally entitled. Taxes can easily go up and down. There isn’t the same political pressure.

Only 44 percent of Social Security beneficiaries perceive themselves to have benefitted from a government social program.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account for half the Federal spending.

The vast majority of Americans—about 96 percent—benefit from some kind of government social program.

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

The most important area for spending restraint is entitlement reform.

I think most Americans believe in a basic social safety net.

If Obama succeeds in turning health insurance and funding for college into universal entitlements, he will have expanded Washington's obligations on the scale of an LBJ or an FDR.