Congress Quotes - Page 10

• [I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.

  James Madison

  Law, Void, Legislature

  James Madison (1904). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790”

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• Does he [the president] possess the power of making war? That power is exclusively vested in Congress. . . . It is the exclusive province of Congress to change a state of peace into a state of war.

  William Paterson

  War, President, Doe

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• Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time... its idea of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint a commission.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Ideas, Hearing, Problem

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.120, Take Root Media

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• A new study published by The British Medical Journal found that inactivity can kill you. I mean, these are the kind of findings that just scare the hell out of Congress.

  Jay Leno

  Mean, Scare, Medical

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• They say that women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.

  Clare Boothe Luce

  Women, Memorable, Politics

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• To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.

  Wendell Phillips

  Men, Law, Aggravation

  Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.305

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• Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?

  Edward Snowden

  Country, Running, War

  "Edward Snowden: NSA whistleblower answers reader questions". www.theguardian.com. June 17, 2013.

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• One of the challenges of any second-term administration is you always lose a certain amount of identification with the Congress, because everybody in the Congress in the first term knows you'll be out there in the next campaign with them, .. Your motives are always a little more suspect when you don't have to face the voters again.

  Roy Blunt

  Challenges, Next, Faces

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• Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today. So I'm asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency, give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot.

  Aaron Broussard

  Caring, New Orleans, Agency

  "Senate Plans Hearings on Slow FEMA Response". "Day to Day" with Madeleine Brand, www.npr.org. September 7, 2005.

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• It's hard for the White House to regain momentum if the Congress is in disarray. It ties up the Republicans in Congress and limits their ability to execute any White House agenda.

  Calvin Jillson

  White, Ties, House

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• I don't think there is anything this Congress could do more definitively to put people back to work, to stimulate our economy to increase our efficiency, our competitiveness, both nationally and internationally

  Peter DeFazio

  Thinking, People, Back To Work

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• We've got a tax code that is encouraging flight of jobs and outsourcing. And that's why we've specifically recommended in this campaign that Congress change our tax code so that we stop giving tax breaks to companies that are moving to Mexico and China and other places, and start putting those tax breaks into companies that are investing here in the United States.

  Barack Obama

  Jobs, Moving, Giving

  Barack Obama and Alan Keyes Illinois Senate Debate hosted by Illinois Radio Network in the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, www.keyesarchives.com. October 12, 2004.

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• So our focus has to be on the things that we can control, which is to take the necessary measures working with Congress to ensure that our economy grows, that we create jobs.

  Jay Carney

  Jobs, Focus, Economy

  "Despite Debt-Crisis Resolution, Wall Street Plummets Amid Economic Fears". www.foxnews.com. August 4, 2011.

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• We simply must look beyond partisan goals and find common ground as Americans. It is imperative that the Members of Congress recognize that partisanship will not serve the American people.

  Michael Dean Crapo

  People, Goal, Looks

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• One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home every weekend. They used to play golf together; their families got to know each other, go to dinner at each other's homes at weekends - and these would be people who were political adversaries.

  Robert M. Gates

  Home, Golf, Weekend

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• It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending, ... No one in America believes the federal government is operating at peak efficiency and can't tighten its belt.

  Tom Coburn

  Believe, Government, White

  "No Katrina sacrifice", www.cnn.com. September 15, 2005.

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• If Congress were to censure, fine or otherwise try to punish a president, it would dramatically alter the balance of power between the branches.

  Mike DeWine

  Balance, Trying, President

  "Could Clinton escape censure, too?". www.cnn.com. December 31, 1998.

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• If you give Congress a chance to vote on both sides of an issue, it will always do it.

  Les Aspin

  Humorous, Issues, Giving

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• I think Republicans now are recognizing that [Obamacare cancellation] may not be what the American people, including even [Donald] Trump voters, are looking for. And my hope is that the president-elect, members of Congress from both parties look at, "Where have we objectively made progress, where things are working better?" Don't undo things just because I did them. I don't have pride of authorship.

  Barack Obama

  Party, Pride, Thinking

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• Senator, it has been reported that you have had illegal congress with your mother.

  Lou Reed

  Mother, Politics, Illegal

  Lou Reed (2008). “Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics”, p.392, Da Capo Press

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• The presidents against Congress, the Senate is against the House, people are against politicians, and I'm against cats in the house.

  Hank Williams, Jr.

  Cat, People, House

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• Congress is headed in the wrong direction with this bill which removes any and all incentives from the food industry to improve their products for children.

  Bob Filner

  Children, Incentives, Bills

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• I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written.

  Robert M. Gates

  Wish, Way, Constitution

  "Interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on 'Fox News Sunday'". "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 20, 2010.

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• [An] act of the Congress of the United States... which assumes powers... not delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Void, United States

  Thomas Jefferson, H. A. Washington (2011). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private”, p.466, Cambridge University Press

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• Every new generation of LGBT Americans needs to be inspired by leaders who come out - whether in Congress, the nonprofit sector, the NFL, or corner offices of Fortune 100 companies.

  Anthony Romero

  Nfl, Office, Leader

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