Jacob Hornberger Quotes

The theory of government I was taught says that government provides benefits, primarily security, to the entire population. In return we pay taxes. But lately the government has been a distributor of special privileges, taking money from some and giving it to others. America is now about evenly split between those who pay income taxes and those who consume them.

Social Security is on the books. We’ll pay for it as long as we have money or can borrow it.

… taking money from the thrifty to keep the improvident

You do not have to cut finds from the elderly sick and still keep the yacht subsidy;

When any welfare scheme is being proposed, its political sponsors always dwell on what a generous and compassionate government should pay to Paul; they neglect to mention that this additional money must be seized from Peter.

The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly, and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.

The main purpose of Social Security is to redistribute wealth, to make an increasingly large number of Americans dependent on government for their basic needs in their retirement years.

Gone are the days when the upper classes were terrified of the angry mob wanting to smash their skulls and confiscate their properties. Now their biggest enemy is the army of lazy bums, whose lifestyle of indolence and hedonism, financed by crippling taxes on the rich, is sucking the lifeblood out of the economy.

Most of my folks back home think Social Security and Medicare are sacred commitments stronger than the strongest contract. And yet if you look at the details here in Washington, they're not even promises. They're scheduled benefits. I think we need to do all that we can to make sure those benefits are real.

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

I would insist that every person in the community in receipt of any income whatsoever must make some contribution to the fund for social security. I want it to be an act of conscious citizenship. I want every child to be taught that when he begins to earn, then, for the first time, he will have the first privilege and right of citizenship—to begin to contribute to the great scheme that has been designed to serve him when he is no longer able to work and to help all of those who at any period of their lives may meet with distress or trouble. In such a scheme, I believe, there should be pensions for all; there should be no means test; those who have should contribute according to their means. But every one, however little he or she earns, should contribute something, be it only a three-penny stamp, as a sort of token payment for the advantage of Australian citizenship.

Welfare for the wealthy simply can no longer be afforded.

A mature welfare state is always broke.

It is not in accordance with the genius of our Government or our country to pay pensions.

We have taxes so we can educate our kids, take care of our elderly.

It is rather a shame for a rich country like ours ... that it should allow those who have toiled all their days to end in penury and possible starvation.

I don't dislike people with a lot of money, but richer people need tax relief less than others.

We’ve taken care not to penalize the wealthy but we have to redistribute some income …It is through reform that we can obtain fairness in the modern world…A reformed welfare state is the only way to obtain social justice.

The payment of Social Security benefits under law have little or nothing to do with the fiscal resources available.

The state of our state is fragile …. Our revenue system is broken because it has relied on regressive and unstable taxes …. I refuse to balance this budget on the backs of the children, the elderly, and the poor.

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

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.

We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system.

Israel's middle class is paying for those below it, and that's fine, but also for those who are above it, and that's very wrong.

Too many people on the Left think that, when you move a chunk of money away from people for entitlements, that the money magically reappears and that discretionary spending will be unaffected.