Tom Reed Quotes

Cabinet spouses are not allowed to lobby other Cabinet members. It's against the rules.

We make our public servants jump through quite a few hoops, you know. We get hysterical if they accept a $50 lunch from a lobbyist. We get hysterical if they accept a ride on some corporate jet.

Almost every business is regulated by the state. So if you're going to say, 'If you own any business, you shouldn't run for public office,' I don't think that's what we want.

We count on the FEC to be the public's watchdog.

Allegations that President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich partly in return for donations to his presidential library have raised questions about the value of such institutions and the federal appropriations that support them.

American politicians are responsive almost solely to the interests and desires of their rich constituents and interest groups that primarily represent big business.

Until the public demands otherwise, the policy makers will continue to serve their financiers.

Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a company is not allowed to provide a personal benefit to a decision maker in return for business. But hiring the sons and daughters of powerful executives and politicians is hardly just the province of banks doing business in China: it has been a time-tested practice here in the United States.

I had no concerns - I had no reason to have concerns based on what was available to me about North's contacts with the private sector people, but I didn't think a CIA person should do it.

My issue with campaign finance is 100 percent disclosure. Wear a suit with patches from your big contributors. Depending on the size of the contribution, that's how big the patch should be.

My father was an entrepreneur - a sign maker, and he had about 20 employees - and often he'd take me to business meetings, and I would listen to him talk with his workers and customers. We would also talk a lot about business over dinner.

The truth is, the 'Fortune' 500 prefer lobbying to campaigning.

No bank, banking association or trust company … shall have as a director or other officer or employee any private banker or any director or other officer or employee of any other bank, banking association, or trust company located in the same place

A liberal doesn’t sell out to the special interests.

Twenty years ago, outside income was a means of keeping the Congress a citizen legislature. Today, outside income is a corrupting influence.

The effective supervision and surveillance of the lobbyist remains as the continuing challenge to the people and the Congress.

Unfortunately, public officials are largely controlled by the very corporations against which they should proceed.

The mixing of politics and business not only is detrimental to politics, as is frequently observed, but even much more so to business.

We have had a continuing problem of the equality of wealth and the power that goes with it. There are other ways of curtailing the power of corporations…. Congress is at fault for not requiring full disclosure of political contributions… Speech is the last thing we should be curtailing.

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?

We need to end unlimited, unaccountable money for all political parties by passing comprehensive campaign finance reform.

Wealthy individuals have always had the capacity to influence politics, of course, but only after two key campaign finance cases - Wisconsin Right to Life and and Citizens United, have they been able to do it in such a large and blatant way.

Any constitutional amendment that simply gives Congress the option of regulating campaign finance fails to immediately achieve what the American people want, and that is a complete reversal of Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions that have allowed corporations and the wealthy few to drown out the voices of everyday voters.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos owes Ohio $5.3 million for campaign finance violations, and Mike DeWine's office refuses to collect the fine.

I understand why foreign government contributions to the Clinton Foundation could raise ethical issues should Hillary run for president.