Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for all her hard work on this bill. I am concerned that there is a collective delirium that seems to have infected part of this Chamber. I keep hearing our colleagues on the other side say that the public financing system, the 6-to-1 matching system that we want to set up, is taxpayer funded. Hear this: It is not taxpayer funded. It is not taxpayer funded. It is not taxpayer funded. It is lawbreaker funded. We are setting up a fund, called the freedom from influence fund, because we don't want the big money and the special interests to exercise influence in our campaigns anymore. The freedom from influence fund will be filled with dollars that come from putting a surcharge, an assessment, on people who break the law: corporations who have engaged in criminal activity or are subject to civil penalties. Corporate malfeasance, that is where the dollars will come from. The people who are breaking the law, they are going to fund the freedom from influence account that will be there to match small donations. Now, let me tell you why it is so important that small donors be the ones that have the power. If you are a candidate and you have to raise money for your campaign, right now, in order to raise the money you need, you have to go to the deep pocket and the PACs and the lobbyists. And here is what happens: You start to think like the company you keep.…”