#subsidies

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them. ↗

— Glenn Reynolds

#subsidies #home

The correlation between poverty and obesity can be traced to agricultural policies and subsidies. ↗

— Michael Pollan

#between #correlation #obesity #policies #poverty

Last night, I had a telephone townhall for my constituents back in Vermont, and we had 11,500 people on it. And I had people on Social Security saying if getting fewer benefits will help us on the debt, they're for it. And I had a farmer saying that he's had subsidies for 35 years but we can't afford them anymore. ↗

— Peter Welch

#anymore #back #benefits #constituents #debt

Every time you cut programs, you take away a person who has a vested interest in high taxes and you put him on the tax rolls and make him a taxpayer. A farmer on subsidies is part welfare bum, whereas a free-market farmer is a small businessman with a gun. ↗

— Grover Norquist

#bum #businessman #cut #every #every time

The American Dream, coupled with government subsidies of utilities and cheap consumer goods courtesy of slave labour somewhere else, has kept the poor huddled masses from rising up. ↗

— Elizabeth Wurtzel

#american dream #cheap #consumer #coupled #courtesy

Political pandering comes in all shapes and sizes, but every four years the presidential primary bring us in contact with its purest form - praising ethanol subsidies amid the corn fields of Iowa. ↗

— John Sununu

#bring #comes #contact #corn #ethanol

These subsidies from four European governments, which include aircraft launch assistance, capital injections, debt forgiveness, have enabled Airbus to develop and range market airliners well below cost. ↗

— Norm Dicks

#aircraft #assistance #below #capital #cost

Rich people who own mansions on the beach shouldn't get federal subsidies. If you want to stay there, take the risk. ↗

— Geraldo Rivera

#federal #get #mansions #own #people

In a time of serious budget deficits, immense war costs and a sluggish economy, we cannot afford to grant such outlandish subsidies to some of our Nation's largest corporations. ↗

— Ron Kind

#budget #budget deficits #cannot #corporations #costs

We believe the Senate language provides for federal subsidies for abortions. Plus there's a language in there where you have to pay one dollar per month, every enrollee, to pay for a fund for reproductive rights which include abortion. And that's totally against federal law. So we are saying take that out. ↗

— Bart Stupak

#against #believe #dollar #every #federal