Political Quotes

“Mr. President, back on the topic of the evening: the Congressional Review Act action to overturn the SEC's rule. I am just kind of at a loss for words. There are people back home asking how politics is going, and they have a certain set of assumptions about the way Congress works. They watch ``House of Cards.'' They watch movies about politics. They have watched other TV shows on Hulu and Netflix, whatever it may be. I submit to you that what we are doing right now is so corrupt, so grotesque, so obvious, so trite that it wouldn't even make the cut as a plot for a TV show about politics because who would believe that the Republican Congress, as one of their first acts, would pass a law prohibiting the implementation of a rule that requires oil companies to disclose what kind of foreign payments they are making for the privilege of extracting resources. So what does that mean? You have oil companies that in order to extract resources in places like Africa and elsewhere--mostly poor countries around the globe--they have to cut a deal with whoever is in charge of the government in order to have access to that resource. Whether it is in Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Africa, Myanmar, or elsewhere, they cut a deal with the governing despot, usually. That money very often makes it directly into the pockets of the family of the people who run the country. This is what Senator Cardin was elucidating, as was Senator Leahy and the ranking member, Senator Brown.…”