Poverty Quotes

[Katrina has prompted Bush to make vaulting promises.] As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality... what a lot of Americans saw was ... some poverty that they had never imagined before, and we need to address that. - George Washington

[It is] a key development issue. Every year that a girl is in school is a progressive step towards ending poverty. - Carol Bellamy

[IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler and other senior officials provided similar visions -- a world free of debt, poverty, hunger and disease, while full of economic partnership.] I am aware of the critical debate about globalization, and many questions have to be of concern to all of us... But I also want to be clear: if the IMF did not exist already, this would be the time to invent it. - Horst Koehler

[Don't worry, said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, a leading House conservative. Cutting taxes for the rich is the best anti-poverty program.] I'm mindful of what a pipe fitter once said to President Reagan... 'I've never been hired by a poor man.' A growing economy is in the interest of every working American, regardless of their income. - Mike Pence

[Bush's priority is redistributing money from the bottom up, Herbert says. It's a harsh criticism, but some of the facts support Herbert's claim.] One of the first things the president did in the aftermath of Katrina was to poke his finger in the eyes of struggling workers by suspending the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act, ... This is one more way of taking money from the working poor and handing it to the wealthy. A construction laborer in New Orleans who would ordinarily be paid about $9 an hour, the prevailing wage in the city, can now be paid less. So much for the president's commitment to fighting poverty. - Bob Herbert

...It is our hope that we will be able to encourage the developed countries to recognize that it is in their interest to bring poverty alleviation in the developing world because we are one world, and unless we get stability and growth in the developing world, we are not going to have a peaceful world. - James Wolfensohn

... I've seen it around the world, in the poorest countries and in countries riven with conflict... It is women who are the key to breaking out of poverty, breaking out of stagnation. ... It's women who can contribute to achieving real security -- not bombs and bullets and repressive governments. - Queen Noor