David Frum Quotes

Businesses have moved from doing business to doing lobbying, and I think that's a very bad thing.

Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed overlords of politics and government. The White House, the Congress and, increasingly, the judiciary, reflect their interests. We appear to have a government run by remote control from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. To hell with everyone else.

Corporations are economic entities or structures, and yet they're allowed to fund political candidates, and when those candidates are elected, guess who gets in the door first? It's corporations.

A senator will come off Capitol Hill and they'll be barred from two years from lobbying in the Senate. So they'll pick the phone up and they'll call their buddy, the senator, their old buddies, and they'll say, 'Listen, I'm here at this law firm now. I can't lobby you, but my new partner, Jack, can lobby you.'

Big business does not want honest government.

The mixing of politics and business not only is detrimental to politics, as is frequently observed, but even much more so to business.

With [Donald's] Trump holdings all over the world, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for him to be able to conduct business without there being either favors given to his companies or the appearance of favors.

Corporations are a good thing. But corporations should not be running our government... They have driven the American economy since its founding, and the prosperity of our country is largely dependent on the free operation of corporations. But some corporations don't want free markets, and they don't want democracy. They want profits.

they have clubbed us off the streets they are stronger they are rich they hire and fire the politicians the newspaper editors the old judges...they hire the men with guns the uniforms the police cars the patrol wagons

He [Richard Nixon] is still the handmaiden of big business as he always has been.

This incident shows how complex the lobby law is.

Nothing is illegal if one hundred well-placed business men decide to do it.

Ethics and Washington DC. Are they mutually exclusive?

Business must learn the lesson. Political power is necessary, that such political power must be assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination.

Our current Supreme Court, in the Citizens United case, took that which had been named corrupt for over 200 years [gifts to politicians] and renamed it legitimate..

In practice, getting rid of crony capitalism is incredibly difficult.

One thing is perfectly clear: We don't need another China crony in the White House!

Government unions should not be allowed to influence the public officials they are lobbying, and sitting across the bargaining table from, through campaign donations and expenditures.

I've been concerned about ethics in government for a long time. And the problems we've had under President Trump are only indicative of the longer-term problem of the erosion of public office and government.

Shareholders, of course, have every right to weigh in on whether (or how) they want a company to exercise political influence.

What stalwart Republican would stop Trump from profiteering for his businesses from the White House the way he's gamed his companies and the tax code for decades, or prevent him from letting his adult children milk their father's position to benefit his supposed 'blind trust?'

Politicians need money at election time and money to get the vote. Well, more than half of money in election comes from corporate interests whose interests are in polluting the Chinese environment and making products.

If ethics is limited to financial conflicts of interest - that's really what I did in the Bush White House - that's a huge problem for me because Trump refused to sell his businesses. We don't know where he's getting his financing.

Well, the problem is that when you mix discussion of official United States government business with discussion of your personal business, you can tread dangerously close to the bribery statutes.

By the way, in Mrs. Clinton's returns, you saw a lot of income coming from donors to the Clinton Foundation and people who benefitted from her State Department term as well.