Bob Barr Quotes

Oversight now is defined as going after political appointees.

No, if there is an aspect of the executive branch of the government that needs looking at, I'm liable to be called in to look at it. But I'm not the only one.

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

In Britain the government has to come down in front of Parliament every day to explain its actions, but here the President never answers directly to Congress.

We're one of the most highly regulated industries, and we have to pay attention to what government is doing.

The administrative control of the government remains everywhere. You can't have a government within the country and not have control over everything that's happening in the country... Even in the Election Commission there is some extent of administrative control.

I feel an independent accountability commission should audit all government services.

Ever since I arrived in Washington in April 2009, I have been fighting for more transparency and accountability in government.

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.

We carry out our work under the leadership of the government.

For students, understanding the separate and unique functions of each branch of government can help them understand how different kinds of government officials can help solve different kinds of problems.

On form of government, there should be checks and balances, and PM should be responsible to Parliament.

When will government cease being a nuisance to everybody?

The intelligence community, for the most part, has no accountability at all; to the Congress, to us the American people, and so they feel that they above the law.

We need to do a top/bottom review of the federal government and for every agency administration bureaucracy that is not called for in the United States Constitution, we have to really ask the question what is its purpose, how many people work there, how much does it cost the taxpayers and what is the value to our society.

Cliff Stearns talks about what he did to Planned Parenthood, making Solyndra a household name - why didn't he do this sooner? Why didn't he see it coming? It's the oversight committee, not the hindsight committee.

Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999.

As a member of Congress, I believe Congress must provide oversight of actions by the Executive Branch as our system of checks and balances requires.

The Senate Majority Leader has the unilateral ability to stand up and say, 'If you defy Congress, if you defy the Constitution, if you defy the American people, none of your nominees will be confirmed.'

I don't want to put words in Geithner's mouth, but I think he is generally against the revolving door of government officials taking jobs with companies that they have overseen or in roles that involve lobbying. At minimum, I'm pretty sure he felt that way about himself.

If you want to change the way your banking system is regulated, if you want to learn the mistakes of what's gone wrong, then you have to change your government.

I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch.

Public agencies should be criticized.

Compared to publicity…internal checks upon bureaucratic misbehavior…have but negligible value.

An attorney general has to stand up [to the President], and sometimes he will be replaced.