Top 165 Reforms Quotes

Lyndon Johnson is not a comfortable model for President Obama to imitate. He is an all-but-forgotten president – pilloried for the failed war in Vietnam and criticized for grandiose reforms conservatives denounce as the epitome of federal social engineering that costs too much and does too little.

Before 9/11 there were weak procedures, willingness, and mechanisms for communicating among agencies for foreign intelligence and the FBI with its focus on law enforcement. The domestic-vs.-foreign barrier has been solved by the reforms after 9/11 that established the DNI.

What we do want to see is reforms that are going to have a permanent effect on the budget deficit.

Making strong infrastructural reforms, particularly in the area of social security, that’s not an appealing prospect for any country or for any political structure. But that’s a reality.

And in terms of entitlement reforms, we have to save them from themselves, because if we don’t reform social security and we don’t reform Medicare, they’re going to actually implode.

If we didn’t propose these reforms, we would not have proposed a budget that got the debt under control.

I was among one of the first entrepreneurs to start building their own private enterprise when Perestroika began in Russia and the state initiated its first market-oriented reforms.

It’s not about what the speaker wants. It’s not about necessarily what I want. There’s two other principles involved here. It’s what the constituents in my district want, and they didn’t want to raise the debt ceiling unless there were significant structural reforms and spending cuts to help us balance our budget.

I hope we can figure out the reforms, educate and really retrain our police officers. Getting people to understand that just because I grew up a different way and my lifestyle‘s different, doesn’t mean that you need to be afraid of me.

I believe that reforms will not really take hold if they do not gradually come into the culture of the people.

It worries me about our unwillingness to really address reforms and modernization in Medicare. This thing was designed 37 years ago. It has not evolved to keep pace with current medical technology.

What America really needs is a long-term bill that makes significant investments in our transportation infrastructure and reforms the highway trust fund to ensure it remains solvent for years to come. This will require bold ideas and a bipartisan effort.

Many still believe that conducting political and economic reforms at the same time is not an Asian way. But this is a fairy-tale. We broke that old stereotype by reforming our political, economic and social systems concurrently since 1990.

We need transformational change of our criminal justice system – not just, you know, a handful of consent decrees or policy reforms.

We are the ones looking out for the middle class. Who do think pays for the endless expansion of government? Its middle class taxpayers. Our reforms protect middle class taxpayers.

Politicians have been the primary hurdle to reforms, and corruption is the center of the problem.

The materialisation of reforms in the form of rollout of the GST, the institution of Indian Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board should boost investor and investment confidence.

With continued prayer and an equally-determined commitment to action for needed anti-violence reforms, let us resolve to work toward a new era in which every American child and every adult are protected from the ravages of brutality, safe and secure in our homes and schools and communities.

Some of my colleagues are unwilling to vote for any Dodd-Frank reforms, partly out of the political fear that any reforms will be seen as reducing regulations on the financial sector.

Pension reforms, like investment advice and automatic enrollment, will strengthen the ability of Americans to save and invest for retirement.

We will open a new bunch of reforms regarding the labor market to make it simpler and adaptable, more flexible.

Greece could default on its debts and even exit currency bloc if it cannot deliver reforms.

I made the right decisions, I set everything on the right course, the reforms are going in the right direction.

As I’ve long said, the farm bill is in need of major reform. At first chance, I voted to remove direct payments. Both the House and the Senate passed bills that end direct payments, and as we move forward, I hope we can work out the rest of the issues to implement the necessary reforms.

Americans are right to believe the American Dream is fading. But that dream only became a possibility for white men as a result of the labor struggles and reforms of the New Deal, and it began to extend to minorities and women only after the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

We do take seriously our obligation to assess whether our reforms are achieving their desired effects without imposing unnecessary burden.

Obamacare‘s a disaster. But the answer is not to simply return to the way things were before. The answer is to repeal and replace Obamacare with modern, market-centered reforms.

Well, Mark, I led the charge for five or six years to get reforms for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I was chairman of an organization called ‘FM Policy Focus.’ What we were saying was, if there was blip in the housing market, Fannie and Freddie would destabilize the greatest economy in the world.

Republican-led reforms would help Americans purchase their own coverage through the use of tax credits and expanded health savings accounts so that they can get a plan that works for them, not a one-size-fits-all plan forced on them by the government.

All of the candidates agree that the Democratic Party needs to undergo fundamental reforms.

Successfully bringing jobs home requires serious policy and reforms that make America the place businesses want to plant and grow. You can’t punish business into doing the things you want.

I push reforms. I tell the truth to people, even when it’s tough for the country.

The more you’re out there singing, learning, and adding roles to your repertoire, it reforms the next piece.

For those of us who want to accomplish something for the country, we need to come up with a list … of anti-spending reforms which are locked into place so we are dramatically lowering the appetite of the federal government over the future.

As California‘s former chief elections officer, I was proud to strengthen election security and boost voter turnout by implementing the critical reforms contained in the For the People Act. They are proven, they are secure, and they should be available to all voters.

An increase in the debt ceiling should be accompanied by fundamental policy reforms, substantial budget savings, and a strong enforcement mechanism to tie the hands of any future Congress.

Despite reforms in steroid control, serious problems still occur in and out of baseball.

Governments and nations should sit together and resolve issues. Reforms must be reached through understanding. But others should not interfere.

I do see great opportunity to make reforms to our tax code, making it simpler, fairer and removing corporate loopholes.

In the 1980s, Democrats enthusiastically helped President Reagan pass his tax reforms, which made the tax system fairer and more efficient in addition to reducing rates.

TPP will require all countries that join the agreement to conform their laws and practices to fundamental labor rights and principles. Vietnam will have to make the necessary reforms or miss out on the agreement’s benefits.

The people in Poland had to deal with painful reforms.

Millions of Millennials and Gen Zers were never exposed to the threats of the Soviet Union; they did not live through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev; they do not remember the Mariel boatlift or the SALT treaties or the Cuban missile crisis.

While Slovakia did not make the first round of NATO membership, as various requirements and reforms are instituted, these actions will enhance the opportunities to join NATO.

It is clear we can make reforms to better ensure we are giving law enforcement all of the tools they need while maintaining the appropriate safeguards to protect the very freedoms we cherish.

As an American, I would really like it if, just for once, Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and ‘The Squad‘ would focus on proposing and shepherding meaningful policy reforms for the country, wouldn’t you?

But here’s what I would tell people of my generation. I turn 40 this year. There isn’t going to be a Social Security. There isn’t going to be a Medicare when you retire. Forget about what your benefit is going to look like. There isn’t going to be one if we don’t make some reforms to save that program now.

The 2 million people who work in the NHS and social care are also themselves patients and users. I know they all want to treat patients and users the way they and their families would want to be treated and that is the purpose of our reforms.

Why is Kerala distinct from many other states? It is simply because of the glorious movements of reforms that brought renaissance to the state.

We are for pension reform, jobs, the flat tax, and justice reforms.

In 2010, conservatives won big majorities in the Wisconsin State Legislature, and I openly supported many of their reforms, including changes to collective bargaining and expansions of school choice.

As we enter into the 110th Congress, it is imperative that we address ethics reforms needed to make this institution run correctly.

Our leaders should certainly engage passionate advocacy of needed reforms, and equally strong criticism of policies they believe are destructive to America. But, from the school boards to the White House, let’s elect more candidates who are committed to constructive dialogue and reasonable compromises.

Let’s replace Obamacare with reforms that put you back in charge of your own healthcare.

There is no better protection against the euro crisis than successful structural reforms in southern Europe.

I think in the end the big issue is that the private sector still needs more help. And the answer is not more big government. I know in my state our reforms allowed us to protect firefighters, police officers, and teachers.

We are very supportive of the economic reforms that the Chinese government have talked about.

The Draft Model Police Act of 2006, as part of police reforms, provided for Special Security Zones to be created in the red corridor, which is a common development area. That means bringing together diverse political components but working through a coordinated bureaucracy.

My government is committed to carrying out electoral reforms. It is our firm resolve to keep criminal elements away from power.

The stark reality facing us today is that without the labour reforms, workers will get neither the income nor jobs in the face of cut-throat global economic competition.

Our country, like every modern state, needs profound democratic reforms. It needs political and ideological pluralism, a mixed economy and protection of human rights and the opening up of society.

What, after all, is the narrative of ‘the American Dream?’ It was a discourse formulated between the 1880s and the 1920s in the United States during the great waves of migration and expansion and reforms of the Progressive Era.

The cost of pension reforms has been perhaps the biggest error committed in the process of modernizing Bolivia‘s economy.

I have to be grateful to our society here in China, grateful to the economic reforms for letting me get rich, and grateful for the efforts of my staff. If there had been no reforms, I would have been a farmer.

I kept trying, proposing, pushing… If you want to succeed, you cannot leave work half done, and unfortunately, many things were left half done. The choice was made not to launch a second wave of economic reforms that I was proposing.

I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn’t like them but they’ll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.

One of the peculiarities of Delhi is that the term ‘reform’ is associated only with passing of laws in Parliament. In fact, the most important reforms are those needed, without new laws, at various level of the government, in work practices and procedures.

Reforms to product and labour markets, education, innovation, green growth, competition, taxes, health – they are the things that should be the object of our primary focus in the context of a long-term strategy to restore sustained growth.

Leadership is more than just managing economic reforms. Leadership means giving broad direction, take up challenges which other people cannot do.

My government, a government of national unity, will make all necessary structural reforms.

For too long, government officials have tinkered with Mexico‘s economic structure through piecemeal reforms that seek to ensure political stability but that do not address the key obstacles to greater innovation and competitiveness.

Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way.

We just have to be crystal clear that if we were to abandon all the reforms made over some very painful years in the Labour party, we would be consigned back to opposition.

There are high hopes of France and what they’re trying to achieve there by liberalising the labour market and other reforms. You lose some, you gain some.

Compromise is not such ignoble and deplorable a thing as we generally think. It is rather an indispensable factor in the political strategy. Any nation that rises against the oppressors is bound to fail in the beginning and to gain partial reforms during the medieval period of its struggle through compromises.

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.

Labour reforms are not anti-worker.

I see myself as a social conservative, but I think that there are lots of social institutions that produce beneficial reforms, like public hospitals, for instance, and schools.

Reforms are needed to stem the tide of outsourcing good jobs to other nations and to educate and train American workers to meet the challenges of the 21st-century world economy.

The Blair government perhaps ranks as the best the U.K. has had for 50 years. It cannot match the scale of Attlee’s reforms, but has a fine record of constitutional reform and economic competence. In my own areas – science and innovation – there have been well-judged and effective changes.

Throughout history, when societies face tough economic times, we have seen democratic reforms deferred, decreased trust in government, persecution of minority groups, and a general shrinking of the democratic space.

Julius Caesar was an aristocrat who sided with the Roman people. He’s not my hero, but he was one of a long line of what we’ll call ‘populares,’ which were popular leaders who tried to institute these reforms that the people were fighting for.

In my years in public service, I have advocated for reforms to our unforgiving and vindictive legal system.

I was an active participant in India‘s key economic reforms, including the third industrial revolution and now the fourth industrial revolution.

The main part of the Hyde bill is to withhold U.S. contributions to the regular assessed budget of the U.N. unless they make real and substantial reforms in the way they operate.

The U.S. views Morocco as an important friend, and we applaud your political and economic reforms that culminated with the recent parliamentary elections that were widely reported to have been conducted in a fair and open manner.

I’ll say the year 2020 will be known as the year of reforms.

Protecting those with pre-existing conditions was one of the greatest health care reforms in our country’s history and must be protected at all costs.

The 2016 presidential election is ripe for the emergence of a game-changing political leader who either dramatically reforms one of the existing parties or mounts an independent bid.

Major reforms include optimisation of the Signals establishments, restructuring of repair echelons, redeployment of ordnance echelons, better utilisation of supply and transport echelons, besides closure of military farms, and Army postal establishments in peace locations.

It’s about our ability precisely to integrate a people and offer jobs, and that, for me, is one of the key rationales of the reforms I’m pushing, and I’m a strong believer in that when you lift barriers, when you deregulate a lot of stuff, basically you improve the equality of opportunities.

Public social services, infrastructural policies, and so on are vital. But a basic income should be part of a package of reforms.

China’s economic transformation began with the introduction in the 1980s of market incentives in the agricultural sector. These reforms were followed by a gradual opening to the global economy, a process that accelerated in the early 1990s.

I strongly believe we must move forward with these much-needed reforms to the Ex-Im Bank by acting on a five-year reauthorization bill.

I look forward to taking on issues regarding the Constitution, intellectual property, terrorism, and other legal and regulatory reforms.

Discussing economic reforms in Serbia is futile.

It is unfortunate that a party like the Congress, which had a role in social reforms as part of the national movement, has aligned with RSS and BJP.

I think that in order to make revolution, you need to make reforms, but you should make these reforms with revolution in mind.

Mexico urgently needs a series of structural reforms that will detonate its true economic potential and generate more public welfare.

Dance never really goes away; it just reforms and reinvents, and it’s become more athletic with new connection to fitness and sport. Dance used to have this exclusivity, but not any more.

The ACA – popularly known as ‘Obamacare’ – has been an important step forward toward an admirable goal: providing access to health insurance for all Americans. But like many reforms generated by the political process, the ACA is problematic.

Local prosecutors must use the power and discretion afforded them to carry out sweeping reforms that will protect the public – especially Black communities – from police violence. Our system’s integrity depends on it.

In addition to needed gun control reforms, America urgently needs a stronger protest movement dedicated to reducing the glorification of violence in our culture – in music, film, television, video games, and even the Internet.

More time on paperwork means less time spent with students or preparing lessons for students. It is as simple as that. The numerous reforms in the bill will go a long way to free our time of special educators.

There are clearly some policies that need to change, and the reputation of the credit card industry is not high. Reforms need to take place.

If the Iraqis fail to implement the reforms, if they fail to get a handle on the violence, there’s nothing the United States can do, militarily or otherwise, that can solve those problems. They have to assume the primary responsibility to govern themselves.

There is no doubt that this government and this country are benefiting from the reforms that we brought in the 1980s, and that couldn’t have been done without the co-operation of the trade union movement.

Labour’s Climate Change Act and our other reforms, including the Green Investment Bank, have been the foundation for the huge growth of Britain‘s green industries.

Our reforms to criminal record disclosure will benefit ex-offenders, but there will a broader, more significant payoff for everyone in society.

I would hope that we could have this in an adult fashion and stop demagogueing the issue anytime you talk about any substantive reforms that will actually save social security and save Medicare and save the system from imploding on itself.

Even a healthy economy and labor market would have struggled under the additional expenses enacted and proposed in 2009 and 2010 – from healthcare mandates and higher taxes, to carbon cap-and-trade and delay in extending the last decade‘s tax reforms.

The Watergate reforms did work well for many years, and if improved and broadened, these reforms can have real and major impact on the system today.

Insurance, pension reforms are going to be extremely important for the stock market because the kind of money we’ll get from that is unbelievable.

The list of non-democratic regimes that have seen significant reforms since 2001 is long and significant.

For reforms ameliorate the situation of the working class, they lighten the weight of the chains labour is burdened with by capitalism, but they are not sufficient to crush capitalism and to emancipate the workers from their tyranny.

Despite the deep reforms we are making, traders and speculators have forced interest rates on Greek bonds to record highs.

Today I can announce a raft of reforms that we estimate could save over 2.5 million police hours every year. That’s the equivalent of more than 1,200 police officer posts. These reforms are a watershed moment in policing. They show that we really mean business in busting bureaucracy.

I promise, before God and my community, to seek reforms so that the powerful and corrupt are no longer above the law.

As far as discom reforms are concerned, they have to be a combination of two parts. One is the existing balance sheet and, therefore, taking care of that. The second important is the reduction in losses going forward.

Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme.

We have made major reforms in Greece. When I took over after a landslide victory we had a mandate for change and I knew my major focus would be re-organizing the state.

While I am skeptical about the long term viability of one-party dominant political systems, I have great admiration for Deng Xiaopeng and the reforms he set China on after 1979.

When you look at what I’ve done here, you see a consistent theme of reforms which is not driven by any dogma from across the water, but a radical agenda to make sure Northern Ireland‘s people enjoy equal opportunities, driven by the values of social justice.

It is also right that we continue to consult with front line workers and the public to ensure that targets are reasonable and achievable, that measurement regimes are proportionate and that the targets take full account of the other reforms that are under way.

A bold reform agenda is our moral obligation. If we make the case effectively and win this November, then we will have the moral authority to enact the kind of fundamental reforms America has not seen since Ronald Reagan’s first year.

As a candidate for Senate, I look forward to offering reforms based on limited government principles that will make our country stronger and more prosperous.

When the president and the prime minister decide to implement reforms, they have all the measures they need to pass them and enforce them.

Every country should conduct its own reforms, should develop its own model, taking into account the experience of other countries, whether close neighbours or far away countries.

Gujarat under Narendra Modi has focused on good governance in the power sector and implemented long-term reforms as opposed to the short-term and anarchic methods adopted by Sheila Dikshit and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.

I think the gains to be achieved by a combination of reforms and labor market adjustments are going to be more permanent and will provide a basis for reducing unemployment and improving export performance, and sustaining growth, in a way that is more sound and permanent.

The principle of tolerance and respect for freedom promoted by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council are today being manipulated and erroneously taken too far.

Conventional wisdom on government’s role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive.

We are now preparing for the reform of the yuan’s exchange rate system. For such reforms to take place, we need good economic conditions… and we need to do it under tight control.

Greece wishes to be part of the eurozone, but it must, of course, go through with the necessary reforms to make this happen.

I don’t think any government is going to go back on the reforms process. There is no government that won’t attempt to get people to come and manufacture in India.

Capital available for individuals to start and expand businesses would increase with regulatory and strategic tax reforms, like reducing marginal rates, repealing the alternative minimum tax, and making the U.S. the most welcoming place for employers to relocate and create jobs.

I always think that reforms and turning China into a free country is a long and tortuous process. Despite this, in a totalitarian state, the fight for freedom comes from the accumulative efforts of the people; without such efforts, very little will happen.

Through our regulatory reforms, the Trump administration is proving that burdensome federal regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress. What makes our actions effective and durable is our commitment to vigorously enforce them.

I have always been saying that while – the legislative reforms are good, but there are so many low-hanging fruits that we have look for by taking executive decisions. I think the government is actually moving in the right direction.

We want market-based, consumer-based reforms in health care. We want to give people incentives to make wise choices in a marketplace, not centralized choices and have government mandates and takeovers.

The Justice in Policing Act would enact comprehensive reforms to law enforcement that would improve police training and practices, while increasing much-needed transparency and accountability.

What we did say is that it is up to the Syrians themselves to decide how to run the country, how to introduce the reforms, what kind reforms, without any outside interference.

If we were going to default, we would have decided that many months ago. It would be wrong for the Greek economy, it would be wrong for the European economy, it would make things worse in the end. That’s why we’re taking the pain and making these structural reforms, and we’re on target.

If very fundamental reforms take place, especially when it comes to factors of production like land, labour, then a higher growth rate is possible.

We have enacted many economic reforms but also others that have an impact on the overall investment climate. For instance, I launched a very important constitutional reform on judicial certainty that completely restarted the whole of the courts system in Ukraine.

I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.

Even without reforms, the Social Security fund will be able to meet 100 percent of its obligations until 2042.

Through trade reforms, Latin American countries can boost their competitiveness in markets for goods and services.

I don’t think that the ECB should compensate for the lack of reforms in some countries… But it is clear that monetary policy can help countries and continents to rebound faster.

If I take you back to the Nineties, our party came up with very bold reforms in the country, economic reforms. They were really revolutionary reforms.

With the winding down of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States now has an opportunity to implement real defense reforms without having a serious impact on immediate battlefield needs.

Under the leaden sway of Alexander III’s government, the silence of the graveyard prevailed. Russian society, equally discouraged by the collapse of all hopes for peaceful reforms and by the apparent ineffectiveness of the revolutionary movement, was in the grip of a mood of depression and resignation.

One of Trump’s reforms is to limit the time that workers can use on the job at taxpayer expense working on union activities. What does this have to do with public service? So taxpayers have to pay overcompensated federal employees while they work on union activities so they can get even more taxpayer money.

Our people have proven their desire for continuing with reforms. We complete the march today with those who have an honest patriotic desire for more progress and reform.

For Latin American countries seeking to play a bigger role in global trade, effectively implementing trade-facilitating reforms could be an important tool in their toolkits.

Between social reforms and revolution there exists for the social democracy an indissoluble tie. The struggle for reforms is its means; the social revolution, its aim.

The UPA government was known for policy paralysis whereas the Modi government is known for reforms.

Look at liberty‘s greatest historic advances: ending slavery. Giving women the vote. Outlawing legal segregation. Each and every time, the people at the forefront of advancing those reforms – often putting their lives on the line – called themselves liberals.

We should insist that governments receiving American aid live up to standards of accountability and transparency, and we should support countries that embrace market reforms, democracy, and the rule of law.

The surest way to return to the people’s business is to listen to the people themselves: We need to drop this whole scheme of federally controlled health care, start over, and work together on real reforms at the state level that will contain costs and won’t leave America trillions of dollars deeper in debt.

I am confident that President Trump‘s administration is capable of making the Pentagon run at maximum efficiency and enacting procurement reforms that will get weapons and assets to our warfighters more quickly and efficiently.

But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms.

From the Fourth Amendment to post-Watergate reforms to the national outcry when Bush‘s warrantless surveillance was revealed in 2005, the United States has a strong tradition of overseeing the government’s power to spy on its citizens.

True enough, the Fed needs radical reforms. In particular, it needs to replace its failed forecasting models and be rid of the academics who overwhelm the Fed system.

I have been working hard trying to implement Dodd-Frank reforms. We went through a terrible crisis in 2008. Many people lost their homes.