Politics & Power Quote by Gary Hart

Hart’s line is a political aikido move: it takes a standard anti-government complaint and flips the momentum back onto the complainer. “Government off your back” is the familiar libertarian slogan, all grievance and friction. Hart answers with a concrete image - pockets, hands, and the unmistakable implication of dependency. The jab is that many voters want the state to shrink in theory while still cashing the checks in practice.

The intent is less to defend big government than to shame selective austerity. Hart is pointing at the contradiction at the heart of American politics: the romance of self-reliance colliding with a sprawling public infrastructure that quietly props up middle-class stability - from subsidies and tax breaks to Medicare, VA benefits, farm supports, and federally backed mortgages. The “hands” aren’t just the poor or the caricatured “welfare recipient”; they’re business lobbies, retirees, homeowners, and local governments that love federal money as much as they dislike federal rules.

Subtextually, it’s also about accountability. If you demand deregulation, lower taxes, and fewer programs, you don’t get to exempt your favored carve-outs. Hart is warning that anti-government rhetoric becomes a kind of moral cosplay unless it comes with a willingness to give something up.

Context matters: Hart came of age in the post-Watergate era, when distrust of institutions was rising even as Americans remained intensely attached to what those institutions delivered. The quote works because it turns an abstract ideological posture into a personal, slightly accusatory picture - and because it names the bargain we’d rather not see: benefits and obligations arrive as a package deal.