Saikat Chakrabarti Quotes

There can only be democracy when money is not allowed to be spent in Politics.

We will accept no corporate PAC money, and we're not going to be driven by the polls.

That hasn't been easy, because in order to run a clean and transparent race, I announced in January I was not going to accept any corporate PAC money.

I will not take corporate money. I don't want it.

I'm voting for Bernie Sanders because he doesn't take any corporate money.

I've made it clear that I'm not taking special interest PAC money or accepting donations from lobbyists - ever. I want to represent the interests of the citizens.

The evils of the use of corporate money in connection with political elections are so generally recognized that the committee deems it unnecessary to make any argument in favor of the general purpose of this measure.

If we must have campaign contributions, this is the way to raise them. If you would start this method now, you would begin a tremendous reform.

In Montana, no one, including out-of-state corporate executives, has been excluded from spending money - or 'speaking' - in our elections. Any individual can contribute. All we require is that they use their own money, not corporate money that belongs to shareholders, and that they disclose who they are.

The role of money in politics is a major problem and particularly the role of unchecked anonymous money.

The identity of political donors should be disclosed and bureaucratic rules should not circumvent the original intent of federal law or interfere with the public's ability to hold these organizations accountable.

To limit money is to limit political power.

In fact, corporate and union moneys go overwhelmingly to incumbents, so limiting that money, as Congress did in the campaign finance law, may be the single most self-denying thing that Congress has ever done.

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

People have their constitutional right to contribute to a campaign and if they have discretionary money that they want to contribute to a candidate, whether a Republican or a Democrat, they should be able to do so.

I think the idea of getting money out of politics is critical.

In Maine, we are fortunate to have a Clean Elections system that allows legislators to turn down corporate special interest money. At the national level, Congress should follow Maine's example by empowering the voices of small donors.

If you create a system that makes the small donors the linchpin of the system in terms of how members of Congress directly raise the funds for their campaigns, then it gives everyday citizens much more of a role - a leveraging role - in the funding of those campaigns.

For every speech given by a politician there should be a tax levied thereon.

Donations to political parties, candidates and elected officials should not be a means to gain personal or policy favours or buy access to politicians or civil servants…. Political parties, candidates and politicians should disclose assets, income and expenditure to an independent agency.

While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.

All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law.

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

Dependence on private money to run campaigns causes pain to Republicans and Democrats alike - and business owners. It's time we did something about it. And public financing of elections should be the first step.

For me, it all comes down to one issue: if we can get money out of political systems, the whole world will change.