Quotes About Oversight

Upon the right constitution of checks all goodness of government depends.

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.

Today, at least $11.7 billion of the approximately $20 billion the CPA ordered sent to Iraq from New York is either unaccounted for or has simply disappeared.

The biggest center of attention needs to be the Secretaries of State. They're the ones that manage the elections. At the end of the day, they're the ones that need to be held accountable.

When you let the wolves guard the hen house, there's bound to be a few chicken dinners.

This was a public telephone so it was clearly an oversight that it was working at all.

The phone wavered in Richard's hand. He was holding it about half an inch away from his ear anyway because it seemed that somebody had dipped the earpiece in some chow mein recently, but that wasn't so bad. It was a public telephone so it was clearly an oversight that it was working at all.

Sen. Proxmire, the watchdog of the scientific community, has tracked down and reported taxpayer-financed scientific research that is redundant, unnecessary, or just plain silly. Those projects that represent an egregious waste of taxpayer money are given his highest award, known as the Golden Fleece. Many of the projects that win the award seem amusing, until one examines the cost.

I'd like to give these detective story writers a course of routine work. They'd soon learn how most things are untraceable and nobody ever notices anything anywhere!

What do you call the unforgivable error?" "Overlooking the obvious.

All this red tape and form-filling. That's what comes of a bureaucratic state. Can't go where you like and do as you please anymore! Somebody's always asking questions.

Georges, never do anything yourself that others can do for you.

You didn't weld it shut or anything like that?" "Yes, stupid me, I forgot.

I got confused. I thought it was a K.Y. scare, so I bought 2000 jars of personal lubricant. I still have some.

There is no doubt that there is a very strange phenomenon called the 'State Comptroller.'

There's a lot of talk coming from Citigroup about how Dodd-Frank isn't perfect. Let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi: I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn't perfect. It should have broken you into pieces.

I think that the S.E.C. has been pretty feckless when it comes to reigning in reckless behavior on Wall Street.

We need to hold Wall Street accountable for issuing the kinds of deceptive loans that nearly brought our economy to its knees in 2008.

We can't expect Wall Street to police itself - that's why we have a federal government.

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

The financial services industry is a ward of the state.

Our Constitution in many situations rightly demands a warrant or order before we take investigative steps. And the FISC provides that vital, independent oversight.

I filed the MSRB Reform Act, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Doug Jones, because the board that oversees the muni-bond market is too secretive and too incestuous. Its membership shares the same DNA. That means the rulebook for municipal bonds is in the hands of a board that resembles a revolving door of longtime industry confederates.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.