Robert Blendon Quotes (11 Quotes)

There was a real skepticism about the ability to rebuild and make things work in the future at the state and local level.

When there would be changes, they'd staff up the Social Security offices. Every congressman would staff up the office. Every mayor had a Social Security specialist so at the local level they could help people see how their benefits changed, ... The aggregate long list of choices - calling an 800 number, going to a website - is just very hard for seniors.

Three issues dominate the public's concern about the future of children in this country -- drugs, crime and home life breakdown,

If there is a breakdown as was seen with Katrina, it will be very hard to convince people they can count on government to do what's necessary to protect their lives.

What isn't on the list, and this is very important in terms of politics (and) community service, is poverty among kids, health care among kids, day care among kids, smoking, alcohol.

It is striking how many days people went without medicine, food and water without help from any agency of government or volunteer group. Many of those who did not evacuate were in poor health and circumstances to begin with and many said they were physically unable to leave.

In the rush to have people pay more out of pocket, I don't think there's a recognition that we need to protect people with serious illness,

We have what is called an historic piece of legislation to try to cover 11 million uninsured children. That's the good news. The bad news is we have a nation that does not know that we've enacted this legislation.

A lot of Americans don't pay attention to their leaders on a day-to-day basis. They measure presidents, governors and mayors on how they handle big events like a hurricane. This event is not over because the bodies are going to be discovered day by day.

If they can't bring back these people, you're going to see the city's infrastructure fall apart.

Bam, if it hits their community, they're going to stop doing everything.