Chuck Grassley Quotes

The legislator commands the future.

Governments propose, and oppositions dispose.

Luckily, I'm a governor - so I get to tell you what I've already done not just what I'm going to do.

I don't order laws, I propose them.

Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns.

Politics doesn't matter, policy does.

The main product of government is laws.

Every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject.

Do you want to make a statement or do you want to make a law?

I think I can regard myself as a political decision-maker.

I think there's a lot to learn from Rockefeller on how to pass legislation.

I'll sign anything except bad legislation.

I know how to take good ideas and turn them into sensible law at great odds.

There's nothing to be said for opposition. You can only talk about things and you can lay your plans. You can't actually achieve very much; you have to be in government for that.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.

The policy is one thing, but it's dictated by what the process is.

No government, be it the most perfect, can stand without strong executive authority.

We will govern as if we had a majority. You simply carry on with your agenda.

Politics is about power, and it is about group power.

The president is the only one we have to make decisions. We have no one else.

They who make laws may without doubt amend or repeal them.

When I embarked in the government, it was with a determination to intermeddle not at all with the legislature.

I've just been elected and right now we'll have a honeymoon with Congress... I'll have a good chance to get my program through.... But after I make my recommendations, I'm going to lose the power and authority I have because that's what happened to President Woodrow Wilson, to President Roosevelt and to Truman and to Kennedy. Every day that I'm in office ... I'll be losing part of my ability to be influential.... So I want you guys to get off your asses and do everything possible to get ... my program passed as soon as possible, before the aura and halo that surround me disappear.

In the United States almost every political question becomes a legal question—or at least a question with legal dimensions.

The social power of the Presidency is one of the most powerful tools a President can use.