Lobbying Reform Quotes

This town has become very corrupt. We need reform of lobbying.

We need reform. We need more transparency between those who lobby us and ourselves in the Congress.

Washington has seldom seen so numerous, so industrious or so insidious a lobby. There is every evidence that money without limit is being spent to sustain this lobby.... I know that in this I am speaking for the members of the two houses, who would rejoice as much as I would to be released from this unbearable situation.

...all members of Congress should be required wear NASCAR uniforms. You know, the kind with the patches? That way we'd know who is sponsoring each of them. I think he was kidding; they'd never be able to do it but it's a great idea and would wake people up in this country.

I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House.

There are over 30,000 lobbyists circling around the 535 members of Congress. The people should have their Senator as their lobbyist.

Tax the rich. End the wars. Break the power of lobbies in Washington. These are the demands of Occupy Wall Street. They are very important. The US corporations dominate Washington. The big oil companies, Wall Street banks and the military-industrial complex - they rule this country and their influence and power has to be broken.

This is the only free country in the world that's doing lobbying. Voters should be the lobbyists. If we can spend all of this time with all these different celebrities who fill up the internet and magazines then we should be able to keep an eye on politicians because they might cost you your job and your home and your life savings.

We need real campaign finance reform to loosen the grip of special interests on politics.

These were lobbyists—many of them compensated quite handsomely not to react as human beings.

We need a total ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

I believe in lower taxes. I believe in more efficient government. I believe in reducing bureaucracy. I believe that we shouldn't have lobbyists who can go in or former government workers who can come back and lobby.

Real lobbying reform must end the practice of corporate lobbyists writing our laws.

Lobbyists and special interests continue to take advantage of loopholes that allow them to host lavish receptions and pay for trips for members of Congress. Those practices represent exactly what's wrong with Washington, and I'm committed to ending them.

Every single dollar spent lobbying a legislator on behalf of oil and gas is a toxic dollar that undermines public health and safety laws that protect Americans. That's contamination of the political system.

Our criteria is that it's okay to invest in companies so long as they stop lobbying in Washington, stop exploring for new hydrocarbons, and sit down with every one else to plan to keep 80 percent of the reserves in the ground.

The corridors of power in Delhi were littered with lobbies of various kinds. The task of cleaning the corridors of power (or cleaning the lobby of lobbies) was important so that the government machinery itself is improved. This process of correction and cleaning took quite some time but it will provide long-term benefits in the form of clean and fair governance.

America is one of the biggest businesses in the world, and the people who run it can't balance their budget. We need business people in there and lobbyists out of there.

I represent poor people, I represent working people. I represent senior citizens. I represent family businesses. I represent people who don't have the wherewithal to hire overpriced Washington lobbyists and lawyers. I want to send the powers back to the states and the people.