Political Quotes

“If money is speech, as the Supreme Court says, then more money must be more persuasive speech, and those ideas with the most money behind them will tend to prevail. This is un-American. I am a product of public schools. I go toe to toe here with people who went to Harvard and Yale and all those expensive schools. My schooling was free, from kindergarten all the way through college. It is the American way, to give us all that level playing field. We do not have a level playing field if we have to live with Buckley versus Valeo. It is an un-American decision. It is wrong. It is elitist. Ideas should prevail because of their inherent worth, not because they were able to be hyped in 30-second commercials. By the way, sometimes these commercials are not even ideas, they are terrible attacks on other candidates. So they are not even ideas, but somehow they are worth so much because an individual may have the money. ``Money is speech'' subverts the notion that ideas, not commercials, are the heart of the expression that the first amendment protects. My colleague, Senator Hollings, who has been so eloquent and so persuasive in this debate was right when he said--and I quote--``Our democracy must be saved from this excess.'' Mr. President, it is time to go back to the original meaning of the first amendment, overturn Buckley versus Valeo and allow Congress to set spending limits that are fair for all congressional races.”