Bill McKibben Quotes

We need new energy back in Washington.

Delay has the odor of the Beltway.

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.

The great curse of modern political life is incrementalism.

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

I think what people are looking for right now is not the kind of pizzazz and pop that perhaps we thought we got in 2008. Certainly, President Obama offered that. What they want now is someone who can work closely with Congress and get things done.

We, as a country, have not seen a significant change in immigration policy in nearly two decades, even though all Americans agree that current immigration policy is outdated and malfunctioning.

Well, here's what I think. I mean, the people are saying, 'We don't want it,' and the Democrats are saying, 'We don't care. We're going to pass it anyway.' And so for the next three months, Washington will be consumed with the Democrats trying to jam this through in a very messy procedure an unpopular health care bill.

I think that what is truly unfortunate is when an entire party makes a decision that they're going to block every single thing that a president wants to accomplish. It's very - it's very hard to get anything done in those circumstances.

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.

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.

In Washington it's much easier to stop something than make something happen.

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

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

I have been in Washington for 22 years and have seen us kick the can down the road. Well there is no more road to kick the can down.

Talking heads will chatter, argue, and rant on TV and in the houses of Congress but that's all they will do. Weeks and months will go by in which the crowning achievement of Congress may be little more than perhaps passing a bill to declare National Eat Your Spinach Week (sponsored, of course, by the Spinach Growers of America).

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.

In our political system it’s easier to block action than to act.

… in light of the president's newfound boldness in speaking out about the unfairness of marijuana prohibition enforcement, he should take the opportunity to significantly reform federal marijuana policy and rearrange the agencies that have mismanaged it for so long.

We're all tired of a Washington that has these partisan camps where nothing gets done.

The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.

The political gridlock in Washington leads us to conclude that policymakers don't have the ability to put the public finances of the U.S. on a sustainable footing.

Trump assumed office promising to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, D.C. Instead, the swamp has grown wider and deeper.

I have always been saying that while - the legislative reforms are good, but there are so many low-hanging fruits that we have look for by taking executive decisions. I think the government is actually moving in the right direction.

You'll never get progress in Washington until you have a majority, bipartisan majority, that really wants to solve problems.