Gavin Newsom Quotes

Politics is who gets what, when, how.

Every policy is shaped by two forces: background analysis and foreground politics. The political forces are loud, self-serving and, in the case of energy policy, well known.

Government is about hard choices.

It is hard for the Chinese to understand that our policies are in great part the result of a number of random actions of different domestic pressure groups and not part of an overall plan.

I'm just an American citizen like everyone else and I'm not sitting at the power table in the room where it all happens.

Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.

Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.

Washington - having spent a lot of time there, I grew up there and have spent a lot of time there recently - is largely defined by detailed analytical views and policy choices that are not very good. You know, each policy choice has a winner and a loser, right? Somebody's ox is getting gored.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

Now in business we do a cost benefit analysis before we make policy changes. Washington should as well.

Now, I learned soon enough, that among the three, two don't trust the third one - the third one is the government. Both industry and unions feel the government is a talking organization and a spending organization.

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.

Personally, I believe that government, rather than money, tends to be the primary factor limiting the development of new technologies.

Politics doesn't matter, policy does.

Without political will, nothing moves forward.

Two things rule the world -- reward and punishment.

Legislative proposals are not merely vehicles for expressing policy, they are devices for getting policy decided.

Priorities are set by legislators, regulators and industry interests. The consumer gets the left-overs.

You cannot make elected officials … do what they will not do.

The issues are too complicated for government leaders to discuss, and too important for bureaucrats.

This legislation is in the President's interest, if only the President could be brought to see it.

Policy making is not as easy as slurping down cabbage soup.

A bureau that benefits a well organized interest group will fare better in getting the sinews for administration than a bureau whose benefits are diffused over unorganized consumers or whose function is to restrain rather than to confer benefits.

Today's public opinion, though it may appear as light as air, may be tomorrow's legislation-for better or for worse.

The job of government is to govern. They ought to get on with it.