Bill McKibben Quotes

Nothing arouses the sharks in Congress so much as the smell of failure.

A typical member of Congress devotes several hours a day to asking for contributions and several more to worrying about how her donors will feel about her votes on the floor.

More than a few Republicans in the United States Senate seem to have contracted a severe case of what Harry Truman called 'Potomac Fever' (wanting to go along to get along in Washington).

You know the way Washington works. Once you start floating ideas, they are immediately attacked by all the different interest groups before the ideas can be brought to fruition.

Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to 'Demon Pass.'

Do the elected officials in Washington stand with ordinary Americans - working families, children, the elderly, the poor - or will the extraordinary power of billionaire campaign contributors and Big Money prevail? The American people, by the millions, must send Congress the answer to that question.

I believe people who go into politics want to do the right thing. And then they hit a big wall of re-election and the pettiness of politics. In the end, politics gets in the way of the business of people.

I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.

Believe it or not, there are members of Congress who actually want to govern and get stuff done. Unfortunately, there are others whose agendas and strategies serve to advance their own interests and expand their donor base.

People who think the might in Washington can be persuaded, or corrupted if you will, by anything less than voters just doesn’t understand what its about and never will. They don’t know what Washington juice is made of.

Those who have lobbyists are more likely to get what they want …. Those who have more money [to spend on lobbying] are more likely to prevail.

Members of state legislatures are owned by doctors and lawyers. That's why workers' compensation cannot be solved.

What Congress does is respond to pressures that are upon it.

Do you know what it takes to get a good piece of legislation passed ... one that everyone agrees on? The egos. The turf battles.... It's incredible.

My deepest worry was that after you do all that begging, and after all those people give you all that money, how can you keep your independence? My experience in the State Legislature showed it can be done, but I never had to beg for $1 million.

Lobbying is declared to be a crime.

You've got to pass legislation fast and not give the special interests time to cut you up.

If you have short term political problems, you behave in a short term way.

Senators today are shying away from casting controversial votes on the proposition of any single vote can lead to their defeat.

I've always believed that the fundamental, driving strategic ethos of the Republican House leadership has been, 'What do we do to get through the next caucus or conference without getting yelled at?' We should never assume they have a long game.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

Most elected officials don't want you to know about the world of political fundraising because they fear that it paints an unflattering portrait of public life.

Once I got into politics, I saw the real fight, where big money controls everything, and where politicians care more about campaign contributions than the people they're supposed to represent.

Well, the elected officials in both parties are receiving campaign contributions and support through electioneering communications from groups that aren't technically affiliated with the campaigns, but really are. That's the off-the-books financing of electioneering communications that's going on.

A lot of what is preventing us from getting things done on the federal level is that there is too much influence from special interests over members of Congress.