CONGRESS QUOTES II

quotations about the U.S. Congress

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I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.

RONALD REAGAN

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Congress is a game of chess, and you must never let your opponent see your pieces.

KEVIN SPACEY

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Congress doesn't vote on the bills, they just wave at them as they go by.

WILL ROGERS

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Suppose you were a member of Congress. And suppose you were an idiot. But I repeat myself.

MARK TWAIN

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There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.

EVAN ESAR

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As I have worked over the past four years to understand this problem, I have become convinced that while a corruption of Congress is destroying the republic, that corruption is not the product of evil. There is a great harm here, but no bin Laden. There are Jack Abramoffs and Duke Cunninghams, to be sure, but they are the exception, not the rule. And without great evil, I am not yet sure that we can muster the will to fight. We will, I fear, simply tolerate the corruption, as a host tolerates a parasite that is not life threatening. Until it is.

LAWRENCE LESSIG

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Politics was not just about winning the election, it was about winning decisively--having the momentum to carry out one's vision. Historically, any president who squeaked into office on a narrow margin accomplished much less; he was weakened right out of the gate, and Congress never seemed to let him forget it.

DAN BROWN

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This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

WILL ROGERS

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The only reason the House hasn't done even more damage is that the Senate often sands down the most noxious ideas, making the bills merely bad, not disastrous.

JONATHAN ALTER

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Next time a man tells you talk is cheap, ask him if he knows how much a session of Congress costs.

EVAN ESAR

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Congress is functioning the way the Founding Fathers intended--not very well. They understood that if you move too quickly, our democracy will be less responsible to the majority.

BARBER B. CONABLE, JR.

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We can't change the way Washington works unless we first change how Congress works.

BARACK OBAMA

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Congress was not some flawless institution engineered to perfection by America's Founders. It was only as effective as those who ran it.

MATT LATIMER

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Five hundred and thirty-five members of Congress plied their trade near here in various buildings named after long-dead politicians. They, in turn, were surrounded by an army of lobbyists flush with cash who worked relentlessly to convince the elected officials of the unassailable righteousness of their causes. Such was democracy.

DAVID BALDACCI

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We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty.

DANIEL WEBSTER

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You send me to Washington to represent you in the senate. But you do not send me there because you are interested in grave questions of national or international policy. When I come back to Arizona, you never ask me any questions about such policies; instead you ask me: "What about my pension?" or "What about that job for my son?" I am not in Washington as a statesman. I am there as a very well paid messenger boy doing your errands. My chief occupation is going around with a forked stick picking up little fragments of patronage for my constituents.

HENRY FOUNTAIN ASHURST

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Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM

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The truth is being more and more realized by the public that, other things being equal or anywhere near equal, the value of the Representative or Senator increases in proportion to his length of service. A man must learn to be a Representative or Senator, just as he must learn to be a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, merchant, engineer, lawyer, doctor, preacher, teacher, or anything else. Of course some men learn quicker than others--some of exceptional ability and powers of observation very speedily, and some not at all. The best plan for a constituency to pursue is to select a man of good sense, good habits, and perfect integrity, young enough to learn, and re-elect him so long as he retains his faculties and is faithful to his trust. Such a man grows into power and high position as surely as the sparks fly upward.

CHAMP CLARK

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Congress is always willing to appropriate money for more and bigger paved roads, anywhere -- particularly if they form loops.

EDWARD ABBEY

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Congress: Bingo with billions.

RED SKELETON

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