Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise with regret today to express my concern about proposed changes to the DISCLOSE Act that I cosponsored. One particular change is deeply troubling--both on the politics and the policy. Having worked on campaign finance and ethics reform for many years, I didn't come to this conclusion lightly or uninformed. I was among the first to say that the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United was both wrong and shouldn't have given corporations a blank check in our elections. As an early cosponsor of DISCLOSE, I am dismayed that, in order to gain passage, we have fallen prey to bullying and threats from one of the most powerful special interest lobbying organizations in the country. Carving out an exception on behalf of one big group like this is just not the way to do reform. Shame on us. I proposed an amendment that would treat all of these organizations the same and guard against unfair, undisclosed contributions. Corporations would be required to disclose if they had receive more than 15 percent from any corporation or from donors who had contributed more than $100,000 regardless of the number of members or whether they are on the right or the left. We shouldn't draw these arbitrary lines. We should be looking at the corrupting influence. The question is ``Who owns our elections?'' Yet, before we answer that, we need to know who owns us--the NRA or the American people. You decide. ____________________”