Quotes About Lawmakers

#1. If everyone in America can easily see who and what their lawmakers are requesting taxpayer money for, we can keep elected officials honest, end the days of political, special interest favors, and reduce wasteful spending.

Kirsten Gillibrand

#2. Those close to Mr. Obama say he grows irritated at being misunderstood - not just by opponents who insinuate that he caters to African-Americans, but also by black lawmakers and intellectuals who fault him for not making his presidency an all-out assault on racial disparity.

Jodi Kantor

#3. It seems like when I was growing up there was more compromise, wanting to work with each other, and I think all of them - all of the lawmakers - have hearts to do what's right, and they all are passionate about it.

Joel Osteen

#4. It is up to us as lawmakers to provide the resources and streamlined processes that will enable our federal forest managers to become the best possible steward of our lands.

Greg Walden

#5. Whatever their motivations, lawmakers on both side of the aisle have certainly discovered that immigration is one of those issues that resonate strongly with the public.

Gwen Ifill

#6. Here's the perversity of Wall Street's psychology: The more Wall Street is convinced that Washington will act rationally and raise the debt ceiling, most likely at the 11th hour, the less pressure there will be on lawmakers to reach an agreement. That will make it more likely a deal isn't reached.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

#7. It is much to be wished that one had a post that knew what it was doing again; and lawmakers that knew what they were doing. If I were the Government, I should feel rather ashamed of making regulations one month and unmaking them the next.

Jane Welsh Carlyle

#8. President Obama's reelection started the countdown for lawmakers to address the fiscal cliff and the statutory debt limit. Unless the President and House Republicans can agree on changes to current law, the U.S. economy will be in recession by spring.

Mark Zandi

#9. What if lawmakers never spoke to their constituents? Oddly enough, that's exactly how corporate America operates. Shareholders vote for directors, but the directors rarely, if ever, communicate with them.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

#10. We love the ability of the people to influence the actions of decision-makers, of lawmakers and presidents to be removed from or elevated to office by the will of voters, and of the community to connect amongst diverse populations through the ballot box.

Charles B. Rangel

#11. I guess what bothers me so much about what I now see going on in both Washington and in Texas is an effort to keep people from finding out about the mistakes of lawmakers and then when they're uncovered, an effort to fool people and pretend there was nothing wrong.

Chris Bell

#12. Certainly accountability of government is what people are clamoring for; they want to know that when lawmakers make a promise or a proposal, you can actually accomplish it.

Jim Nussle

#13. The American people deserve to know that their elected leaders play by the exact same rules that they play by and that their lawmakers' only interest is what's best for the country, not their own financial gain.

Kirsten Gillibrand

#14. It's not a cost of doing business when the corporation executives go to jail, and that's why they fight so hard to make sure the prosecutors' budget are very limited and that the campaign cash-greased lawmakers keep defending them against being held accountable.

Ralph Nader

#15. As federal lawmakers, we have a responsibility to set a precedent for energy efficient practices.

Greg Walden

#16. To dissociate politicians from capitalists is slightly disingenuous, to put it mildly. U.S. lawmakers are competitive and auction themselves to the highest bidder via the lobby system.

Tariq Ali

#17. The American people are screaming out saying it's unfair that the wealthiest, the largest corporations who can afford the best attorneys, the best accountants, take advantage of these special tax treatments that the lobbyists have, along with lawmakers, have cooked in the books here.

David Plouffe

#18. Human rights are inscribed in the hearts of people; they were there long before lawmakers drafted their first proclamation.

Mary Robinson

#19. Lawyers from the NSA, as well as the UK's GCHQ, work very hard to search for loopholes in laws and constitutional protections that they can use to justify indiscriminate, dragnet surveillance operations that were at best unwittingly authorized by lawmakers.

Edward Snowden

#20. As state and federal lawmakers debate the country's energy policies and Colorado's role in the ever-expanding energy economy, let's hope they remember that unnecessary regulations stifle growth while doing nothing for public safety or health.

Bob Beauprez

#21. Increasingly, campaigns have become narcotics that blur our awareness of problems long enough to elect the lawmakers who must deal with them.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson

#22. Lawmakers in both political parties have often acceded to unions' requests to avoid political confrontations or to curry favor. They have pushed difficult choices into the future.

Charles Duhigg

#23. The Internet is a powerful example of free speech and the free market in action; it is curious that the Net has alarmed the lawmakers of a nation founded on those principles.

Denise Caruso

#24. One difficulty in making the Senate work the way it was intended is that America's electorate is increasingly divided into red and blue states, with lawmakers representing just one color or the other.

Olympia Snowe

#25. I spend as little time with lawmakers as possible. Many are great. And more than you expect want real change. But they're not going to do anything till we, the outsiders, force them to adopt it.

Lawrence Lessig

#26. Lawmakers have good reason to want a healthy broadcast industry. Broadcast TV stations provide more than 186,000 jobs on an annual basis, which directly generate more than $30 billion in economic activity.

Gordon Smith

#27. What is ... disturbing to me is that many of these pro-Israeli lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause ... The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress.

Cynthia McKinney

#28. We have all read tragic stories in our local papers about gun accidents as a result of misuse. As lawmakers we can better promote safety and responsibility by encouraging gun owners to purchase gun safes to store firearms and keep them from falling into the wrong hands.

Ron Lewis

#29. There are online forms you can fill out to send to your lawmakers, demanding that nothing - nothing at all or in any way - be done about any guns whatever, anywhere.

Dick Cavett

#30. Our world has evolved and grown more technologically savvy. Lawmakers need to adjust to these changes.

Dennis Hastert

#31. President Obama hosted lawmakers Thursday saying he wanted bipartisan input on health care reform. Nobody's mind was changed. At the summit's end he threatened to go with the nuclear option, showing he's tougher on Republicans than he is on Iran.

Argus Hamilton

#32. Massachusetts became the first state to marry gay couples, though lawmakers say allowing gay couples to get married raises a lot of questions. You know, such as: does that best man invite both guys to the bachelor party?

Jay Leno

#33. Yesterday I, along with a bipartisan Congressional Delegation of lawmakers, inspected the detention facilities at Guantanamo used to house individuals detained in the War on Terrorism.

Jim Ryun

#34. Lawmakers who interfere with commerce and the normal creation of jobs in an economy run the risk of doing harm rather than good. Unintended consequences from regulating or legislating to achieve a goal can occur and cause havoc in the markets or an economy.

Mark Skousen

#35. Obama prefers to look forward, not back, as he has stated. So at least during his tenure, there will be no reliable record compiled as a cautionary tale for lawmakers and presidents in future times of crisis. This is the historical Obama.

David K. Shipler

#36. It's lawmakers know better than anyone that laws are more a matter of practical compromise than any kind of moral imperative.

Kim Stanley Robinson

#37. You should go to the polls, organize yourself. But once lawmakers are chosen, they must be respected.

Lech Walesa

#38. Lawmakers zealously guard their prerogatives, and as much as some might oppose a minimum-wage increase, they will not want to see the issue taken out of their hands.

Eric Schneiderman

#39. Federal rules require the national rail network to have an operating PTC system by the end of the year, though many lawmakers have endorsed rail industry appeals for more time to comply.

Anonymous

#40. Wall Street banks have the right to express their views to lawmakers and regulators through lobbying, but the law is clear: If they want to influence lawmakers, they must disclose their lobbying expenditures.

Elizabeth Warren

#41. There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.

Susan B. Anthony

#42. Listen, we all have to agree that there is too much litigation going on in this world. But every year it seems to multiply tenfold. Why can't we stop it? Well, it's because the lawmakers in Congress and the Senate are almost all lawyers, too!

James Belushi

#43. Somewhat, lawbreakers are lawmakers for they give lawmakers real reasons to make and strengthen laws

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

#44. Lawmakers need to be held accountable and should feel the impact of a government shutdown just like many other Americans will.

Debbie Stabenow

#45. Money often determines not only who gets elected, but what gets done. Which voices do lawmakers listen to, the banks or home owners, coal companies, or asthma sufferers, the CEOs or the unemployed?

Madeleine M. Kunin

#46. As lawmakers, we must assure the people of America that our nation will not experience the nightmare of the 2000 presidential election.

Eddie Bernice Johnson

#47. I'm knocking our pitiful, pathetic lawmakers.

Jimmy Swaggart

#48. If I were a Catholic, I'd be asking what's going on here. I really would. "The pope also broke with his predecessors by suggesting that Catholic lawmakers are free to vote for same-sex marriage and civil unions."

Rush Limbaugh

#49. America draws tremendous strength from its diversity, which prompts the question, as Congress contemplates comprehensive immigration reform, why are some lawmakers aiming to curb diversity instead of promoting it?

Cedric Richmond

#50. That's what made it so
frightening to the lawmakers: Love obeys
no laws other than its own.

Lauren Oliver

#51. Amendments occupy a great deal of most legislators' time, particularly those lawmakers in the minority. Members of Congress do author major bills, but more commonly they make minor adjustments to the bigger bill.

Matt Taibbi

#52. You may be told that the legal decisions lead the changes, that judges and lawmakers lead the culture in those theaters called courtrooms, but they only ratify change. They are almost never where change begins, only where it ends up, for most changes travel from the edges to the center.

Rebecca Solnit