Paul Gosar Quotes

Members of Congress don’t read the bills.

People feel that they're being required to meet all sorts of regulations and rules and requirements in their areas of work and MPs are not imposing those sort of restrictions on themselves.

Oppositions are not there to get legislation through. Oppositions are there to hold the government to account.

The Senate must stop doing so much of its business in secret, behind closed doors…. A bill that affects the nation’s security has been held up for months by a secret hold and cannot see the light of day…. There is no accountability…. The person who exercises a hold ought to be identified…. Secret holds have been the bane of the United States Senate for decades. So much for sunshine in the United States Senate.

Legislating should be done in a manner that is understandable to the governed.

The people have the right to know what their Agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in the option of the Legislature to conceal their proceedings.

If everyone in government would refuse to sign everything they couldn't read, everything would grind to a screeching halt.

Never have I seen such a monstrous piece of legislation. Without a single committee hearing we are being asked to vote on that 484 pages. They think we will all go along with it. I read in the paper that nobody will have the courage to vote against it. Well, Robert Byrd is going to vote against it because I don't know what I am voting for.

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.

When I was first elected to the House in 2006, it was important to me to send a clear message to the people of NY-20: I wanted to be a representative for the people and shed some light on their government, so I became the first member of Congress to post my schedule, my financial disclosures and my earmark requests all online.

We need more transparency and accountability in government so that people know how their money is being spent. That means putting budgets online, putting legislation online.

Representative government demands an ongoing conversation between legislators and constituents.

Certainly accountability of government is what people are clamoring for; they want to know that when lawmakers make a promise or a proposal, you can actually accomplish it.

I support health care reform in this country, but the current bills we have before us are too big, too costly, and the people who send me to Washington to be their voice are opposed to them and this process.

If the president is failing to disclose material facts with regard to legislation being presented to the Congress on a question as important as war and peace, I think it does impair the level of trust that the House and the Senate have for this administration.

The American people need to know the truth. The American people need to see the truth. In a democracy, letting the people know the truth is the essence of what it means to be free.

Voters cannot hold officials responsible if they do not know what government is doing, or which parts of government are doing what.

The Senate floor is and always has been the great arena of our democracy. I spent eight years in my younger life as a boxer, and sometimes when I enter the chamber, I think, 'This is the ring. The American people can see us here and listen to our arguments. This is where the fights matter.'

I know how to make sausage, and now that I've seen how laws are made, I'll stick with sausage.

No sitting administration likes to see itself studied; no administration welcomes investigations.

The duty of an Opposition is to oppose.

What is the value of bringing a bill to the floor without the members having an opportunity to read it.

I hold them [politicians] in contempt for the reason that they enact laws, further social engineering, do anything to get elected, couldn't care less about the wishes of the people and make horrible mistakes along the way when they do get in office. If there is anyone the most ignorant about issues it is a politician. A plague on all their houses!

It is the duty of parliament to look at the men as well as the measures.

Governments propose, and oppositions dispose.