Jim McGovern Quotes

It's obscene how money is driving politics.

On Capitol Hill money doesn't talk. It bellows.

The whole system is bribery.

And when the guy [politician] says “Yes, I took money, but it didn’t influence my vote”? Oh, come on. The company that’s giving you the money thinks it is going to influence the vote. Why else would they give you the money?

America has the best congress money can buy.

On streets where statesmen once strolled, a never-ending stream of money now changes hands—tying the hands of those elected to lead.

There's the stench of money around this building [the Capitol].

This system stinks and every senator who participates in it knows it stinks. And the American people are right when they mistrust this system, when what matters most in seeking public office is not integrity, not ability, not judgment, not reason, not responsibility, not experience, not intelligence, but money …. Money dominates the system. Money infuses the system. Money is the system.

The spree of big money campaigning—and the corruption that goes with it—seems guaranteed to worsen …. Campaign money handlers will keep pushing the limits wherever and however they can—and the integrity of our electoral system will pay the price.

Abramoff did not own me, but we did engage in the culture of corruption together.

Most important of all the structural reforms, we need to follow through on the recent Congressional effort to discipline the use of money in politics, by setting reasonable limits on campaign spending, limiting and publicizing individual and organizational gifts and channeling much more of the money (including … all general election spending) through the respective party committees rather than through individual candidates’ treasuries.

The only people whose views count in the legislation that passes are those with big money. It doesn’t matter what the great majority of Americans want. Our Congress is bought.

To be fair, money and politics never work in a directly straight line.

Money is at the root of most that is wrong in American politics.

Politics has become unbelievably and unfortunately way too much about how much money is involved rather than what kind of ideas are involved.

We have the best government that money can buy.

We have to get rid of the constant fundraising that happens inside the Congress. Before, political parties used to raise money; now, individual members are raising money through the DCCC and the RCCC. It is absolutely corrupt.

Washington's a cesspool of money.

I can tell you that too much money is corrupting American politics. Don't blame the American public. The U.S. Supreme Court has a lot to answer for, because it has made it impossible for Congress to reduce the corrupting influence of money on American political life.

Obviously no one wants to give members of Congress a lot of money, because they barely do anything, and many of them are terrible, but a Congress that is made up of rich-but-not-super-rich people is going to be more corruptible than a Congress of really rich people.

Soft money will find its way and seep into the political system and corrode it, unless we plug every hole.

The political battle is between big money combines who spend a thousand pounds or more on every constituency they fight… when they speak democracy, they don't mean government by the people...they mean financial democracy, in which money counts and nothing but money.

Eventually, money wins in politics.

It is campaign money that calls the tune, a fact recognized by every politician within a few minutes after getting into politics.

When the legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.