Political Quotes

“I rise to support the Doolittle substitute. Thirteen States do not have limits, and I do not think you can name them because they do not stand out as States loaded with public corruption. Thirteen States do not limit campaign financing. We should be here debating increasing disclosure, immediate reporting and enforcement. I have heard speaker after speaker talking about laws not being enforced. What about more laws without enforcement? Yet folks in this city have worked themselves into a state of hysteria over what they call campaign finance reform. This in spite of the fact that survey after survey show that most Americans rate campaign finance reform near the bottom of their concerns, if they rate it at all. Then why the hysteria? The liberals' idea of reform rests primarily on restricting the free flow of moneys and ideas to the public through any channels except those they control and they regulate. The refreshing motto of Fox Cable News network is 'We report and you decide.' That is how elections ought to be. We report who helped us and you decide. By contrast, the motto of liberals and their media allies embodied in the Shays-Meehan bill seems to be, 'We report, we decide, and everyone else be quiet.' It is a bedrock principle of American political heritage that money is speech. When the supporters of Shays-Meehan want to restrict and regulate the amount of money in campaigns, they want to restrict and regulate the amount of speech.”