So long as politicians need millions to win a seat in Congress and nearly a billion to contest the White House, they will sanctify the methods needed to raise such sums.
Here is what the practical impact of Citizens United means. What Citizens United means is that corporations call hundreds of millions of dollars into television ads, radio ads, and other forms of advertising to defeat those candidates who stand up and take them on.
The Citizens United ruling did not invent special-interest spending; it enables corporations and unions to advocate directly on behalf of a candidate rather than running more subtle 'issue ads.'
I'm not backed by the super PACs and the big corporations.
That hasn't been easy, because in order to run a clean and transparent race, I announced in January I was not going to accept any corporate PAC money.
A million dollars in the presidential election is a spit in the ocean. It's not a lot of money.
I was sitting alone in a grim mood - furious that the press attacked Senator Edwards on the price of a haircut. But it inspired me - from now on, all haircuts, etc., that are necessary and important for his campaign - please send the bills to me... It is a way to help our friend without government restrictions.
If candidates spend money on ads and other political speech and their opponents are rewarded with government handouts to attack them, that chills speech and is unconstitutional. Non-participating candidates certainly don't volunteer to allow their opponents to receive taxpayer subsidies to bash them.
Running on corporate-PAC money is a huge liability.
I have no control over the super PAC; all I do is write the check.
The money in politics is a cash cow for the media.
Millions of dollars, millions of dollars are spent by Planned Parenthood to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives and to the Senate. This isn't about babies; this is about money.
Since Trump began running for president in summer 2015, he has repeatedly used his hotels and golf courses as venues for his campaign events - and paid himself for the privilege.
This is a choice, ladies and gentleman, between Texas and Washington. Most of Ted Cruz's money comes from Washington, from outside the state of Texas, and they've run millions and millions of untrue ads against me.
Soft money is the silent killer of health care reform and other legislation we need.
You don't need to be a trained investigator to grasp the blatantly obvious fact that the funding of the Steele dossier by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is a crucial piece of information that should have been revealed to the FISA Court.
