Money In Politics Quotes

• Unfortunately, money in politics is an insidious thing - and a loophole in our campaign finance system was taken advantage of with money going to existing or new 527 groups with the sole purpose of influencing the election.

  Olympia Snowe

  Taken, Groups, Campaigns

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• Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

  Oscar Ameringer

  Life, Witty, Art

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• Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

  Will Rogers

  Witty, Sunset, Political Will

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• When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Witty, Funny Inspirational, Government

  P J O'Rourke (1992). “Parliament of Whores-Open Mark”, Vintage Books USA

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• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.24, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The overflow of big money in politics drowns out the voices of everyday people. That is part of the conundrum in America: The more money you have the more speech you have. That leaves everyday people out of the equation.

  Nina Turner

  Voice, America, People

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• To my mind, if we do not get a handle on money in politics and the degree to which big money controls the political process in this country, nobody is going to bring about the changes that is needed in this country for the middle class and working families.

  Bernie Sanders

  Country, Class, Political

  Bernie Sanders during Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, www.nytimes.com. February 5, 2016.

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• An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought.

  Simon Cameron

  Honesty, Political Will, Definitions

  Attributed in "Chronicles of America Series" by Allen Johnson, Yale University Press, 1918.

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• The money in politics is a cash cow for the media.

  Noam Chomsky

  Media, Cash, Cows

  "Chomsky on McCutcheon: ‘Let’s Forget Any Pretense of Being a Democratic Society’" by Abel Collins, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 27, 2014.

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• I think it's a terrible system, but money in politics is like water running downhill -- it finds its way.

  Jonathan Alter

  Running, Thinking, Water

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• The realistic way to reduce the amount of money in politics is to reduce the amount of politics in money -- the importance of government in allocating wealth and opportunity.

  George Will

  Opportunity, Government, Way

  George F. Will (2003). “With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002”, p.293, Simon and Schuster

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• The only tool we have to fix the problems of this country - the democratic process - is itself broken. Which is why nothing will fundamentally change until we solve the problem of money in politics.

  Arianna Huffington

  Country, Broken, Tools

  Arianna Huffington (2004). “Fanatics & Fools: How Politicians are Betraying the American People”, Miramax Books

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• In a time of polarized politics there's one thing that more than ninety percent of Americans agree on, that our government is broken, and broken because of the money in politics.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Government, Broken, Ninety

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• 

  The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.29, Vintage

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• Well, the role of money in politics is pretty corrupting right now.

  Caroline Kennedy

  Roles, Wells, Right Now

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• At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.

  John Paul Stevens

  Government, Self, People

  "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310". United States Supreme Court case No. 08-205, caselaw.findlaw.com. January 21, 2010.

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• It's an issue that Democrats and Republicans seem to come together on, the over-influence of money in politics and in power.

  Andrew Gillum

  Issues, Together, Republican

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Money in politics is a huge issue.

  Russ Feingold

  Issues, Huge

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• And who can suffer injury by just taxation, impartial laws and the application of the Jeffersonian doctrine of equal rights to all and special privileges to none? Only those whose accumulations are stained with dishonesty and whose immoral methods have given them a distorted view of business, society and government. Accumulating by conscious frauds more money than they can use upon themselves, wisely distribute or safely leave to their children, these denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw a light upon their crimes.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Light, Enemy, Bankers

  Speech at Madison Square Garden, New York, August 30, 1906.

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• The leftists are constantly whining and moaning about all the money in politics. They want campaign finance reform, right? They want to get all the money out of politics. They want government money governing campaigns. They want all the money out, they say. But then you look at their coffers, and it's overflowing with hundreds of millions of dollars.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Government, Reform, Dollars

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• I would like to have an ample fund to spread the light of Republicanism, but I am willing to undergo the disadvantage to make certain that in the future we shall reduce the power of money in politics for unworthy purposes.

  William Howard Taft

  Light, Purpose, Disadvantages

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• The way to solve all the money in politics is not to pretend we can get money out of politics. That will never happen. We have to channel it in ways where we can see it and hold it accountable. And I think the parties are the best vehicle for that.

  Mark Shields

  Party, Thinking, Way

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I personally think money in politics on any level is horrible. I'd like to see a set amount and have every candidate spend it. Have it be completely transparent. But actually getting to that spot, as we have learned through all the legislation over the decades, is very difficult.

  Rick Santelli

  Thinking, Levels, Legislation

  "Meet the Press" with David Gregory, www.nbcnews.com. October 24, 2010.

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• Once people know that you can spend the money and that you're willing to spend the money and that you're set up to spend the money in politics, then your threat to spend the money is as convincing as actually spending it.

  Sheldon Whitehouse

  People, Spending, Threat

  Source: nordic.businessinsider.com

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• [Donald Trump] doesn't have the money to run commercials and I launched into a tirade on money in politics.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Running, Trump

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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