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Colin Powell on Government Reform

Secretary of State (Pres. Bush Cabinet)

 


Voter ID laws unnecessarily make minority voting harder

Q: This year, the Supreme Court voided part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which said that States that had a history of segregation, had to get the approval of the federal government before they could make changes in their election processes. The court told the congress to update that.

POWELL: I would have preferred that they did not reach such a conclusion, but they did. The concern I have now is that many states are putting in place procedures that make it a little bit harder to vote. You need a photo ID. Well, you didn't need a photo ID for decades before. Is it really necessary now? And they claim that there is widespread abuse and voter fraud. But nothing substantiates that. There isn't widespread abuse. These kinds of procedures being put in place to slow the process down and make it likely that fewer Hispanics & African-Americans might vote I think are going to backfire because these people are going to come out and do what they have to do in order to vote. And I encourage that

Source: CBS Face the Nation 2013 series: 2016 presidential hopefuls , Aug 25, 2013

State Dept. is under-staffed and under-funded

Colin Powell stated at his Senate confirmation hearing that “a guiding principle of Bush’s foreign policy will be that America stands ready to help any country that wishes to join the democratic world.” With respect to the State Department, he noted that “While the world has been growing more demanding and more complex, we have cut the number of people in the State Department; we have underfunded our facilities; we have neglected our infrastructure. We need to do better.”
Source: State Department web site, “Secretary’s Bio” (Bush Cabinet) , Feb 3, 2001

Government should stay out of the way of free enterprise

First and foremost, the government should stay out of the way of the free enterprise system. Let wealth be created because it is from wealth that the whole society grows. It is from wealth that good jobs and opportunities flow. Governments do have a responsibility to society but keep it as limited as possible.
Source: Home Business Magazine interview, Bakersfield, CA , Oct 11, 1997

Believes in value of many government social programs

Because I express beliefs [in free enterprise and for lower taxes], some people have rushed to hang a Republican label around my neck. I am not, however, knee-jerk anti-government. I was born a New Deal, Depression-era kid. Franklin Roosevelt was a hero in my boyhood home. Government helped my parents by providing cheap public subway systems so they could get to work, and public schools for their children, and protection under the law to make sure their labor was not exploited. My mother’s union, with its right to bargain collectively secured by law, also protected her. Social Security allowed my parents to live a dignified retirement. Medicare gave them access to quality care during long, painful terminal illnesses. I received a free college education because New York taxed its citizens to make this investment in the sons and daughters of immigrants and the working class.
Source: My American Journey, by Colin Powell, p. 590-1 , Jan 1, 1995

Other candidates on Government Reform: Colin Powell on other issues:
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Page last updated: Mar 13, 2021