Peter Hitchens Quotes

Big money is ruining the political system.

When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.

Politicians can be bought and often are.

A millionaire can buy a Senate seat just as he would buy an opera box or a yacht or any other luxury in which he can afford to indulge himself. In some instances the sale takes the form of open bribery of the legislators; more often the Senate seat was simply the satisfaction of a ‘claim’ acknowledged by the leaders of the party and created by large contributions to the party treasury.

To dissociate politicians from capitalists is slightly disingenuous, to put it mildly. U.S. lawmakers are competitive and auction themselves to the highest bidder via the lobby system.

Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, and independents all agree on only one thing - our national politicians are bought.

Big money has hijacked our politics.

Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.

There are a lot of grotesqueries in politics, not the least of which is the fund-raising side.

You can't take a congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or a steak or something like that. But you can take him to a fund-raising lunch and not only buy him that steak, but give him $25,000 extra and call it a fund-raiser - and have all the same access and all the same interactions with that congressman.

The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.

Politicians in this country have always been for sale. That is nothing new.

People like Elizabeth Dole have given too much power to the special interests.

America has the best congress money can buy.

The principal reasons that special interests can extract their price from government is money .... Those who do not accept money from PACs are those who have other sources.

A $5,000 campaign contribution to a member of Congress will hardly get you a thank you these days.

Money in politics is like ants in your kitchen. You close all the holes and get them all out or they'll find their way in again.

Money in politics leads to bad things—and I am bipartisan in that view.

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

Today’s expensive election campaigns are entrenching a culture of patronage [in Indonesia].

Our government is for sale.

We have to get rid of the constant fundraising that happens inside the Congress. Before, political parties used to raise money; now, individual members are raising money through the DCCC and the RCCC. It is absolutely corrupt.

The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound.

We are telling veterans they must sacrifice to pay for the pet projects and contracts to campaign donors of powerful members of Congress.

Well, the role of money in politics is pretty corrupting right now.