Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I have opposed the Shays-Meehan bill for a couple of reasons. First of all, I believe that it chills free speech, that it has the effect of trying to keep people who want to influence public policy from having their voice heard. Furthermore, I feel that it has the effect of encouraging people to have their voice heard in elections by contributing to organizations that are, in a sense, "blind organizations," organizations that the public will not know who they are, what they stand for, who contributes, or how much, and that that is a worse campaign finance system than what we have. I do not believe you can call this reform; I just believe you can call it change. In my opinion, it is a worse change, a change for the worse. However, if we are going to do anything in changing campaign finance, we ought to close the abuses that exist today, that are widespread and blatantly wrong, and that is the ability to spend cash, what is commonly referred to as "walking-around money," that is used for vote buying. This is done in many different parts of the country, and it is done with the use of cash. All my amendment would do would be to require that any money used for getting out the vote, that it be done in the form of a check, so that it would be visible and we would know to whom the money was paid.”