To politicians who say we're in such a bind now, you have to look at what the politicians did. The reason they can't afford these plans is that in many cases they enjoyed pension holidays, and now they have to catch up.

These unfunded liabilities are not a big problem. We have 40 or 50 years to recoup the money through investments. A person who owes $400,000 on a mortgage wouldn't say, 'Oh, my God, we're doomed,' because they know they have 30 years to pay it off.

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress

It is true that the politician, in his professional character, does not always, or even very often, conform to the most approved pattern of private conduct.

Nowhere do “politicians” form a more separate and powerful section of the nation than precisely in North America. There, each of the two major parties which alternatively succeed each other in power is itself in turn controlled by people who make a business of politics, who speculate on seats in the legislative assemblies of the Union as well as of the separate states, or who make a living by carrying on agitation for their party and on its victory are rewarded with positions. It is well known how the Americans have been trying for thirty years to shake off this yoke, which has become intolerable, and how in spite of it all they continue to sink ever deeper in this swamp of corruption. It is precisely in America that we see best how there takes place this process of the state power making itself independent in relation to society, whose mere instrument it was originally intended to be. Here there exists no dynasty, no nobility, no standing army, beyond the few men keeping watch on the Indians, no bureaucracy with permanent posts or the right to pensions. And nevertheless we find here two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends – and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it.

As far as I know, only politicians can make this kind of miracle staying more than 30 years of their entire life lying or hiding from the electors what really happen behind the political curtain of our status quo. This is one of the rare cases that a politician can swear in front of any deity or authority without any hesitation: “I really appreciate your ignorance or indifference about politics. It’s a blessing for me in my lifetime”.