Dick Durbin Quotes

I don't think they [Congress] ought to balance their budget on the backs of the poor.

So I come before you with a budget that is honest in its discussion of our challenges, creative in its possible solutions, compassionate in its commitment to our most vulnerable, and balanced on the bottom line.

The deficit crisis is real and must be addressed. But it cannot be solved on the backs of the weak and vulnerable.

I am still a socialist. I am a left-of-center politician. I believe that in Africa, if you see the poverty around us, you can't afford to be anything else.

I vote far-left. I am frequently angered by corporate greed and think education ought to be free and teachers paid well.

I urge the Bush Administration to rethink its priorities. We can't talk about community values without being prepared to invest in those very same communities.

Any government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

Government can’t deliver a free lunch to the country as a whole. It can, however, determine who pays for lunch.

We used to wage war on poverty—not poor people.

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

Sometimes Republicans want to cut the social welfare programs and yet they ask for billions and billions more for the Defense Department. I don’t take that approach.

The wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequality. This is especially true when constraints on others are so great.

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.

Government becomes a burden only when it functions on behalf of the poor.

Venezuela’s state oil company routinely spends more on social programs then it does on exploration and production.

I would change the tax system markedly. The market system is wonderful but you have to take care of the poople who are left behind and do not profit from it.

I'd actually call myself pretty much a liberal. A progressive liberal. Because I do think that government is there to be a provider of services for people who cannot provide for themselves.

I guess I'd be put in the ID politics camp. But there is really nothing in the world-view of, say, Bernie Sanders I actually disagree with. I'd like a guaranteed income, single-payer health care, a stronger safety net, etc. The problem is the temptation to paper over historically fraught issues to achieve that is tempting.

I don't know how we will ever have the moral authority to deal with social welfare if we can't deal with corporate welfare.

What we shouldn't be doing is borrowing money to give benefits to the most fortunate, to put the burden and pull the rug out of those who struggle the most.

For me, democratic socialism is about - really, the value for me is that I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live.

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.

If we don't want intrusive government, then we need to care for the least among us so that they are not exploited as a reason by the government for bigger government.

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.

Irrespective of economic theories, we will take decisions in the larger interest of the poor people.