Rich Turner Quotes

One of the reasons Americans hold Washington in such low regard is the perception that nothing ever gets done. Whatever the issue - no matter how urgent - they always seem to be 'working on it.'

Congress is almost totally dysfunctional right now. All we've done this year and my first year in the Senate ... is barely keep the doors open.

Members of Congress don’t speak to their colleagues any more. They talk to the national audience.

There is a problem in Washington, and the problem is bigger than a continuing resolution. It is bigger than Obamacare. It is even bigger than the budget. The most fundamental problem and the frustration is that the men and women in Washington aren't listening.

Common sense is not all that common in Washington DC.

Today's Congress responds to everything, to everybody, to every whim.

Everyone in Washington knows what needs to be done. They just don’t do it because there’s always someone else they can blame.

Why is it so hard for the Congress to do something for the public?

I hate to tell you, but it's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill

In the absence of a crisis, the status quo in Washington is more or less set in cement, as advocacy groups and turf-conscious government officials are able to thwart change.

Congress seems to be very good at doing nothing.

Like their predecessors, the Presidents of today just throw up their hands.

We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex - but Congress can.

I don't think it's the function of Congress to function well. It should drag its heels on the way to decision.

What passes for real debate in Washington often seems more like an echo chamber, with politicians talking at politicians.

You can see how dysfunctional this Congress is.

I understand why so many Americans are fed up with government. The 112th Congress was almost universally derided as the worst ever. It was the most polarized body since the end of Reconstruction, according to one study, and I grew embarrassed by its partisan bickering, inactivity, and refusal to address the vital challenges facing America.

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.

And I'm here to tell you, the reaction that I'm getting around the country, people are sick and tired of this word in Washington, compromise. This is why nothing ever gets done.

A Senator of the United States … serves his people by joining in the petty squabbles that occupy so much time of the Senate today. I may have grown cynical from long service, but this is a tendency I do not like, and I sometimes think I’d rather be a dog and bay at the moon than stay in the Senate another six years and listen to it.

Washington has become a place where good ideas come to die.

Congress doesn’t do comprehensive well.

We’re not very good at policy making any more, but we are good at symbolism. So we do a lot of symbols.

Federal governments and even state governments within countries have basically been immobilized by conflicting interests, by conflicting views of what science is, and the inability to lead. They are immobilized because they don’t want to take tough votes and alienate half of the constituency.

On Capitol Hill we like to make tough speeches. We don’t like to make tough choices.