Thomas Reed Quotes

He [Donald Trump] buys and sells politicians of all stripes.

Campaign finance and ethics reform only works if it curtails all special interest groups equally and does not carve out any exceptions to benefit one party or another. 'Pay to play' reform was passed to limit the influence of big spending contractors over the public officials from whom they are trying to obtain work.

People in Washington do things that they shouldn’t do because they owe somebody.

Honest Graft

America has the best congress money can buy.

I have been around long enough to know that when large amounts of money are donated to politicians, something besides good government is expected in return.

Politicians can be bought and often are.

Friendship is the most corrupting influence in politics.

CBC: Corrupt Bastard’s Club

Our government is for sale.

Our aim should be to not allow a single corrupt politician or even a family member to enter the House.

Money is the original sin in politics and I am not sinless.

No government functions without the grease of corruption.

One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption.

The bottom line is that if politicians weren't in the business of granting favors and exacting tribute, every single issue surrounding campaign finance reform would be irrelevant. After all, why would anyone spend money for influence, access, favors and tribute if the only thing that politicians do is to live up to their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution?

When these political action committees give money, they expect something in return other than good government.

Political corruption is to Rhode Islanders as smog is to people who live in Los Angeles: nobody complains of its absence, but when it rolls around everyone feels right at home.

I've been a politician and so I'm sometimes cynical about what politicians won't do. When I hear a politician say something that makes no sense whatsoever, I think there's one of two things there: There's money or the promise of money.

As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.

Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt.

Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen.

Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.

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.

Too often, they play to whatever group is the loudest down at City Hall, and they buy them off, essentially.

We do live in an environment of crony capitalism, and the main reason we do is that loopholes are for sale, and both parties have their hands out through those loopholes.