Ed Schultz Quotes

You've got to just follow the money [in Washington]. You see it. There's no countervailing power.

The Republican Party has steadfastly sided with its donors and its lobbyists, and this is why we're where we are.

Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.

Much of the money raised in politics does not come free of charge.

All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law.

There is a reason why these people [from Wall Street] are putting huge amounts of money into our political system. And in my view, it is undermining American democracy and it is allowing Congress to represent wealthy campaign contributors and not the working families of this country.

There's issue of a corrupt campaign finance system, where big money interests and Wall Street are trying to buy elections.Those are the issues that are resonating.

Big money tries to purchase its own agenda. Money does too much talking in Washington. Every senator, every representative, even the president awakens each morning with a number in his head that will drive the whole day. The number is the amount of money that must [be] raised that day for his reelection. If he fails, the next day's number will be even higher.

Most Republicans are not prepared to stand up to the fossil fuel industry because they get a lot of their campaign funds from the Koch brothers and other people in the fossil fuel industry. That tells me why we have to reform our campaign finance system.

The scandalous question that hangs over modern government and excites perpetual outrage is about political money and what it buys. What exactly do these contributors get in return for the hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars they funnel to the politicians?

Barack Obama's large contributor was Goldman Sachs - same thing on the Republican side. If you go to both their conventions, you see the same lobbyists paying off both sides so they win either way.

The idea of allowing corporations to have unlimited influence on our democracy is very dangerous, obviously.

The average American doesn't realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists.

Unfortunately, money in politics is an insidious thing - and a loophole in our campaign finance system was taken advantage of with money going to existing or new 527 groups with the sole purpose of influencing the election.

In reality, everybody in Congress is a stand-in for some kind of lobbyist. In many cases it's difficult to tell whether it's the companies that are lobbying the legislators or whether it's the other way around.

Experience in other countries shows how big money, rather than the best political candidate, can influence politics.

Nobody wants campaign finance reform more than me. It would save me a fortune.

Well I think money has been going into political campaigns for a very long time.

“Lobbyist” has been a dirty word in politics for a number of years.

It is campaign money that calls the tune, a fact recognized by every politician within a few minutes after getting into politics.

We've got a thousand lobbyists in thousand dollar suits giving you a thousand reasons we can't change.

The oil and gas lobby, with the vast amount of money at its disposal, is, I believe, the most diabolical influence at work in the nation's capitol. It has for years succeeded in blocking the assignment of public-spirited members to the tax-writing committees of the House and Senate, and also intervened in the election of leaders and assistant leaders in both Houses.

Soft money is the silent killer of health care reform and other legislation we need.

Unfortunately, public officials are largely controlled by the very corporations against which they should proceed.

Not since the gilded age has our politics been opened so wide to corporate contribution and donations from secret sources.