How to Use welfare state in a Sentence

welfare state

noun
  • Cheap goods and the welfare state pushed by the left, were not enough.
    — Michael Bernick, Forbes, 19 July 2022
  • Few were still mighty after the creation of the welfare state.
    — The Economist, 5 Sep. 2019
  • In fact, many right-wing parties now embrace the welfare state.
    — Nate Cohn, New York Times, 25 Dec. 2024
  • Should the welfare state extend its embrace?
    — Colton Valentine, New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2026
  • Indeed, that is the main reason why our welfare state is so rotten in the first place.
    — Ryan Cooper, TheWeek, 9 June 2020
  • Obamacare was the largest expansion of the welfare state in decades.
    — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, 28 Sep. 2017
  • Third, the tigers’ thin welfare states have also become a hindrance.
    — The Economist, 5 Dec. 2019
  • And not every solution rests with the welfare state.
    — Idrees Kahloon, The Atlantic, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Here the promise of a vast welfare state solely funded by new taxes on the rich runs aground.
    — Matthew Zeitlin, Vox, 2 July 2019
  • One canard about immigrants is that many come for the comforts of the welfare state.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 13 Oct. 2022
  • This trend has been coupled with a gradual shrinking of the welfare state.
    — Miranda Sheild Johansson, Fortune, 22 Jan. 2026
  • The welfare state might keep people housed and fed, but the cost is existential.
    — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023
  • In his road-building projects that employed the poor lie the foundations of the welfare state.
    — Parul Sehgal, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2020
  • In Kuwait’s lavish welfare state, the cost per gallon is nearly four times less.
    — Isabel Debre, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 July 2022
  • If its welfare state is too cushy, or its climate policies too green – well, nobody’s perfect.
    — Christian Edwards, CNN Money, 30 Jan. 2026
  • This is where the Democrats are willing to talk the talk about a cradle-to-grave welfare state, but not walk the walk.
    — Rich Lowry, National Review, 14 Sep. 2021
  • Liberals view a larger welfare state as an unalloyed good, but what’s the track record?
    — Jason L. Riley, WSJ, 21 Sep. 2021
  • The president campaigned as a reformer of the welfare state, the cost of which has led to large budget deficits.
    — The Economist, 20 June 2020
  • The growth of the welfare state limits the chances that declining cities will disappear.
    — The Economist, 21 Oct. 2017
  • This pledge boosted morale and provided the template for the postwar welfare state.
    — Adrian Wooldridge, Twin Cities, 6 Dec. 2025
  • Elliott often points to the role of a dysfunctional welfare state.
    — New York Times, 30 Sep. 2021
  • In the '80s, most far-right parties were hostile to immigrants and the welfare state.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2017
  • Liberals have trillions of ideas on how to expand the welfare state, and not a single one on how to save people from it.
    — David Harsanyi, National Review, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Until then, expanding the welfare state doesn’t make the bucket leakier.
    — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 20 Sep. 2021
  • The expansion of the welfare state has been the greatest in living memory.
    — The Economist, 6 Mar. 2021
  • To the extent that the United States has a welfare state, it is not being furnished by oil wealth.
    — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 18 Jan. 2022
  • Support for the welfare state is really born in Finnish politics.
    — Kristen Edgreen Kaufman, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • If that shortage persisted, the country’s entire welfare state would be in jeopardy.
    — Rogé Karma, The Atlantic, 1 June 2026
  • The two groups make up over 30% of the population, putting a strain on Israel’s welfare state.
    — The Economist, 17 May 2018
  • Better, an expansion of the welfare state that would dwarf ObamaCare.
    — Bobby Jindal, WSJ, 20 Dec. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'welfare state.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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