Transparency in Politics Quotes

I think the record shows that as Speaker, I have taken the lead in cleaning up politics.

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.

People are yearning for a politics that tells it straight: that being in government is difficult, that there are tough decisions that we have to make sometimes.

The strength of Donald Trump as a candidate - and I'm not in any way defending moral convictions or anything of the sort - was that he says what he means, you know where he stands.

There is no more important task in Washington than cleaning up the culture of corruption. Yet the president - whose White House has become the cradle of Republican corruption - is not taking responsibility for the costs of that corruption.

It was not a state secret that I would call on Thackeray. I was not hiding anything.

The votes elected officials make should be based on the best interests of the American people, not the fear of retribution when shadowy groups spend millions of dollars on negative advertisements.

As a member of Congress, I strongly believe I have a responsibility to be truthful, even if that means delivering difficult news.

My experience has proved that a man who is running for office, and is not willing to make his honest opinions known to the public, either has no honest opinions or is not honest about them.

History’s pendulum is now swinging back toward the day when political finances were only lightly regulated.

The First Amendment is really at the very core of political speech, and political speech is at the core of the First Amendment. So, we want to be very careful to make sure that candidates for office are free to express their views so that people will make an informed choice. We don't want them holding back, and sort of concealing their views and then disclosing them afterwards.

Hillary Clinton made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests and, in less than two years, secret speeches that she does not want to reveal under any circumstances to the public. I wonder why.

For Trump, the reasons to release his tax returns have always been compelling. Doing so would show the American people he doesn't just talk about accountability and transparency but also walks the walk.

Donald Trump said that if President Obama releases his birth certificate, Trump will release his tax return. Obama said he won't run for a second term if Trump releases that thing on his head.

Hillary [Clinton] has been very guarded with the press.

No minister should be able to whisk through Parliament agreements that are negotiated behind closed doors.

Government must be a transparent garment which tightly clings to the people's body.

If you ever injected truth into politics you'd have no politics

Success in politics demands that you must take your people into confidence about your views and state them very clearly, very politely, very calmly, but nevertheless, state them openly.

One such issue that Arkansans want action taken on is campaign finance reform. And this is a problem that is not really all that complicated.

They (voters) want to know what's the truth. They're not interested in a chameleon.

You look worldwide for the great leaders, and they're pretty thin on the ground, and of course the problem is unless you're squeaky, squeaky clean, something is going to come out of the cupboard. Most people aren't squeaky clean. Most people have fallen by the wayside once or twice in their lives, and because the world is so transparent now, I think they're very fearful of running for office. It's a huge shame, because often people who have really lived and are amazing people can be brought down by a past indiscretion.

I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are ... Not this time. Not now.

We are world leaders in open and transparent government.

Anyone who's tuned in to the House of Commons TV coverage knows the benches are often empty. I like that. I'm a big fan of political transparency. It's good for us to know which debates the MPs consider important enough to show up for, and which not.