Latest Barney Frank Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Alec Baldwin has done this great Donald Trump. I wish somebody would hire Leslie Jordan to play Jeff Sessions. The only way is to put the two of them out there. it is the most bizarre, pathetic silliness I can imagine at what should be the most serious deliberations in the American government.

  Barney Frank

  Wish, Done, Serious

• There is parallels these two great men John McCain and Ted Kennedy of great impact in the Senate, you don`t agree with everything they did but certainly they had major impacts as senators. Their one major political failure not to be elected president but that didn`t stop them from having enormous impact and at roughly the same age, exactly the same disease. It`s kind of a poignant sad parallel.

  Barney Frank

  Men, Political, Age

• Can I say one other thing that`s very important? I`m indebted to Donald Trump for a long time, we`ve had this problem that people disliked government. And the health care bill has shown reminded people and Donald Trump has shown people there is something a lot worse than government. It`s not government. That as bad as they might have thought the government was on health care, it`s now created people that the absence of government healthcare is even worse.

  Barney Frank

  Long, People, Important

• Donald Trump has done more for getting people to understand the importance of public policy that respond to public needs in an affirmative way than anything we could have done on our own.

  Barney Frank

  People, Done, Importance

• One of the striking things and Donald Trump is right, he gets no Democratic votes. It`s interesting there were Democrats from states some of them more conservative states that voted him, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota. They`re not afraid of Donald Trump those Democratic Senators because they know more than he knows and know what the people want.

  Barney Frank

  People, Interesting, Conservative

• I think there were two criticisms you can make of Donald Trump`s involvement in the Health Care Bill. First of all, there were times when he wasn`t being helpful. Secondly, there were times when he was trying to be helpful. I`m not sure which one did more damage.

  Barney Frank

  Thinking, Criticism, Trying

• I can tell you about health care and also about the financial reform bill. The Barack Obama, the President personally and his administration officials at his direction were very much involved.

  Barney Frank

  President, Care, Financial

• Ronald Reagan got a lot of democrats. I wish he hadn`t. I got to Congress with Reagan coming to the Whitehouse. The Reagan Program, a very radical one, a very drastic one passed because he had a lot of democrats. He worked at it personally and also because Reagan retained a popularity.

  Barney Frank

  Wish, Popularity, Program

• I don't think Donald Trump is the right person because I very much disagree with him.

  Barney Frank

  Thinking, Trump, Persons

  "Ex-Rep. Barney Frank On Possible Trump Appointees, Dodd-Frank". Interview with David Greene, kccu.org. November 22, 2016.

• I am not aware of any specific provision that mandates any tightening of lending to small business other than a requirement that people who lend and then sell that loan be prepared to take a part of the risk. And I'm proud of that.

  Barney Frank

  People, Risk, Proud

  "What?! Ex-Congressman Barney Frank Endures Tough Interview...on National Public Radio!" by Jack Coleman, www.newsbusters.org. November 22, 2016.

• NATO was a wonderful idea. It was formed in 1949. We are as far away from NATO as NATO was when it was done in time from the presidency of Grover Cleveland.

  Barney Frank

  Ideas, Cleveland, Done

  "Reps. Barney Frank & Ron Paul on Military Spending". "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, www.realclearpolitics.com. July 7, 2010.

• There was a degree of interventionism in American foreign policy, the notion that we must be the superpower and we have to intervene everywhere, that I think makes no sense.

  Barney Frank

  Thinking, Degrees, Foreign Policy

  "Reps. Barney Frank & Ron Paul on Military Spending". "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, www.realclearpolitics.com. July 7, 2010.

• Trying to avert foreclosures, once you can't just force the banks to do it as a condition of getting aid, means that you have to put some public money into it or you have to do other things that are politically unpopular. From the macroeconomic standpoint there is overwhelming need to help people reduce what they owe so that we don't get the foreclosures and we don't get people kicked out of their homes. On the other hand, there is great resistance politically to helping people, not all of whom would be worth recipients of the help.

  Barney Frank

  Home, Mean, Hands

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Michael Guerriero, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

• If you care deeply about a cause and you are then engaged on behalf of that cause in an activity that makes you feel very good and very brave and you're really in solidarity with all your friends, and you're enjoying it, you're probably not advancing the cause very much, because you're spending all your time with people you agree with cheering each other on and not engaging.

  Barney Frank

  Cheer, People, Brave

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Michael Guerriero, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

• In the West everybody recognizes the need for a private sector, pretty much, even the one Socialist group understands this now, and so there tends to be debate about how much public sector intervention you think is needed for a variety of reasons, and there are very important differences on party lines that should be fought out.

  Barney Frank

  Party, Thinking, Differences

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Ryan Lizza, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

• Excessive partisanship is the problem. There has never been a democracy in the history of the world in a polity of any size where you didn't have political parties. Even sometimes over the objections of the people who started it.

  Barney Frank

  Party, People, Political

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Michael Guerriero, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

• The people who started the American government, the founders of the Constitution, didn't like political parties but they were forced to start them. Nobody ever created political parties in England, they evolved. And there do tend to be two general tendencies that focus around how much government you think you need.

  Barney Frank

  Party, Thinking, Government

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Michael Guerriero, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

• The most active people in the country know different things, and because each one tends to hear mostly and deal mostly with people with whom they agree, they are reinforced not simply in the conviction that they are right, which is totally appropriate, but that they are the majority. So you have both sides, the Left and the Right, thinking that the majority of the country is really with them.

  Barney Frank

  Country, Thinking, People

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Michael Guerriero, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

• A leader can`t move a country that`s not ready. You can`t make the waves, but when you see them coming, you can help direct them.

  Barney Frank

  Country, Moving, Leader

  "Hardball with Chris Matthews". www.nbcnews.com. June 29, 2015.

• We were giving advice for the single-worst idea to come forward from a group that's been rife with them, it would be this: The idea is this: Let's make the tax code of America better for very rich people; let's give substantial tax relief to the richest people we can find. Forget about the person making $40,000 a year and paying Social Security payroll tax. Forget about all those other people paying income tax; we're here to give tax relief to the richest 2% of America.

  Barney Frank

  Years, Ideas, Payroll Tax

  "Estate Tax Debate". "PBS NewsHour" with Kwame Holman, www.pbs.org. June 08, 2000.

• I should have voted for the first Iraq war. George Bush did that one very well. I had been skeptical. I was afraid that George Bush was going to treat the first Iraq war the way his son treated the second.

  Barney Frank

  War, Son, Should Have

  "Exit Interview: Barney Frank Reflects on Successes, Regrets, Future Plans". "PBS NewsHour" with Margaret Warner, www.pbs.org. December 25, 2012.

• Going before an audience of people who expect you to be funny is tough. Going before an audience that expect you to be boring, and then being a little funny, is much easier. I prefer easier.

  Barney Frank

  People, Littles, Tough

  "Exit Interview: Barney Frank Reflects on Successes, Regrets, Future Plans". "PBS NewsHour" with Margaret Warner, www.pbs.org. December 25, 2012.

• I had always been interested in politics. I had assumed - for two reasons, being Jewish and being gay back in the late '50s, early '60s - that I would never be elected or anything, but I would participate as an activist.

  Barney Frank

  Gay, Two, Reason

  "Exit Interview: Barney Frank Reflects on Successes, Regrets, Future Plans". Interview with Margaret Warner, www.pbs.org. December 26, 2012.