Romano Prodi Quotes

There is much in American society which I admire, but I have long held the view that the absence of an effective safety net in that country means that too many needy citizens fall by the wayside. That is not the path that Australia will tread. Nor do we want the burdens of nanny state paternalism that now weigh down many economies in Europe.

We need to create jobs for 300,000 youth graduating from high school in the next three years. We need to produce growth so we can have an economic system that can turn our natural wealth into a productive system. We need services, because poverty reduction cannot take place without effective citizenship.

If you're talking about the narrow issue of public assistance, I would like to see us move to a more healthy system. But until we come up with certain guarantees - for example, guaranteed jobs where mothers move off welfare - I support welfare very strongly. The worst thing we could do is impose time limits and then expect people to sink or swim once they move off welfare.

You know where nice people end up? On welfare.

To remedy the frequent distresses of the common people, the poor laws of England have been instituted; but it is to be feared that though they may have alleviated a little the intensity of individual misfortune, they have spread the general evil over a much larger surface.

The more 'adequate' we make relief, the more people we are going to find willing to get on it and stay on it indefinitely. The more we try to make sure that everybody really in need of relief gets it, the more certain we can be that we are also giving it to people who neither need nor deserve it.

Welfare makes you dependent upon someone to take care of you.

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

I don't believe in welfare.

I was once a welfare recipient and am very aware of the successes and failures of this critical safety net. There are those that would have us believe that those receiving TANF benefits are lazy, shiftless, freeloaders who are just sitting around thinking of another way to suckle from the government teat.

Today we are ending welfare as we know it.

In order to advance the public weal efforts should be made to afford work to every able-bodied citizen on terms that will secure his existence… Any person unable to support himself or his dependants shall, where no other person is responsible for his or their maintenance, be entitled to receive public assistance …

We don’t want to turn this [social] safety net into a hammock that ends up lulling people in their lives into dependency and complacency.

I believe in a safety net. I believe one of the responsibilities of the Federal Government is a safety net.

Even in the United States, 'you have a sort of welfare state, even if you don't want to admit it -- you don't allow people to die on the street.

Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and riches

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

I receive food stamps but I have never been on welfare.

Social Security is the greatest swindle of the poor ever.

Productive and sustainable job creation, along with increased and better-targeted social expenditure, are the only routes to permanently beat the poverty trap and to bring our social indicators on par with developed countries.

We must have a welfare system that we can afford, which will mean giving greater attention to directing the welfare program toward its primary purposes and its intended beneficiaries.

At its core, government welfare is predicated on a false compassion.

I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No.

The welfare state has always been judged by its good intentions, rather than its bad results.

The attack on Social Security is similarly motivated. Social Security is based on the conception is that we should have sympathy for others, not function merely as isolated "rational wealth maximizers."