Richard V. Allen Quotes

I'm deciding where I am best for this president-elect [Donald Trump] and this vice president-elect [Mike Pence] in due course. But there are many qualified men and women who can serve him at the highest levels.

If I don't get along with Democrats, I'm sort of, like, out of business.

Those who cry out that the government should 'do something' never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.

Whenever I form a ministry, the Carleton Club was like the Zoological Gardens at feeding time.

The problem is that the energy in the Republican Party today is not directed at how to make government work better. It is directed against government.

I think what Americans need and what Mainers need more than anything is government that functions and I think that the filibuster prevents us from functioning and making progress on issues.

We have to get back to a government where leaders are willing to talk across party lines and do not have absolute politics as the goal.

I think the politics have gotten better in the United States, which makes it easier to pass legislation, budgets and treaties.

Well, we're just a couple of weeks from new President Barack Obama being sworn in. And he's been very busy naming a lot of cabinet positions. And today he announced that he wants the surgeon general to be TV Dr. Sanjay Gupta. That was the kid on 'American Idol,' wasn't it?

In terms of going into the West Wing, I will do whatever the president-elect and the vice president-elect - I worked with Mike Pence for 10 years - they believe is my best and highest use for them.

Donald Trump has assembled a group of people who know how to, quote, get it done, whatever it is. Now, the left is not gonna be happy with the things they want to get done. And they're gonna continue to oppose it even when they benefit from it, they are going to continue to oppose it, unless Trump comes in with massive tax increases when of course the Democrats will sign on for that.

I would not have imagined being asked to be Secretary of State, it was a great honor to serve with President Obama in his cabinet.

I can tell you this. It is not going to be evenly constituted and when she was Speaker Pelosi, she certainly showed no interests in having an equal number of Republicans and Democrats.

I'm going to make a guess, not a definitive statement, I would think if you had to make a decision like that [ completed the e-mail investigation on Hillary Clinton], you'd give it - you'd give that to an independent counsel. You wouldn't make it as the appointee of the new president.

President Obama had lunch with Republican leaders at the White House today and had to do without salt, pepper and butter. Not for dietary reasons. The Republicans refused to pass anything.

What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government.

I don't have a right to pick the president's cabinet on substance.

You know, the bully pulpit that the president has is pretty significant. And I think that one of the things this I've learned in my two and a half years in Congress is the American people want to see us transcend party label and transcend D and R and actually get things done, deliver to the American people, and I think if we were focused on that, we would be seeing a lot more folks happy with what's going on in Washington, D.C.

I still don't feel responsible for what Donald Trump says or does. But I do feel a responsibility as president of the United States to make sure that I facilitate a good transition and I present to him as well, as the American people my best thinking, my best ideas about how you move the country forward. To speak out with respect to areas where I think the Republican party's wrong, but to pledge to work with them on those things that I think will advance the causes of security and prosperity and justice and inclusiveness in America.

There are no moderate Republicans left, with the exception of a few who would vote with us when it doesn’t make any difference,” Frank said. “It’s the most rigid ideological party since before the Civil War. … The bumper sticker I’m going to have printed up for Democrats this year is, ‘We’re not perfect, but they’re nuts.’

We need to ensure that the government agencies that are supposed to be regulating the financial system are actually doing their jobs. We must shrink the federal government and hold it accountable - and to do that, we need a leader who understands how bureaucracies work and how to cut them down to size.

I agree with George Washington's concern about parties: They become an end in themselves, rather than being committed to helping people improve their lives.

President [Barack] Obama, it took him a number of days to do [appointments to Administration] and it took former President Bill Clinton even longer.

We need a new government that works.

We saw his [Donald Trump] children appointed this week to formal roles in the transition. A lot of ethics experts looking at that and saying that there is not a blind trust.