Quotes About Congress

It was difficult to know which part of the government would ignite first. The Supreme Court had plenty of dry kindling: most of its justices were old men born in the previous century. Congress was eternally bickering. And no executive had ever underperformed quite as spectacularly as James Buchanan.

What if all the difficulties anticipated in the Federalist Papers—regional tensions, unscrupulous leaders, and a dysfunctional Congress—happened at precisely the same moment?

One of the responsibilities of Congress is the power of the purse, but there is also oversight. In order to have proper oversight, you have to have agency administrators, directors, and secretaries of those agencies speak frankly and about the facts.

There's no better sight than when I look out from the speaker's rostrum and see a group of Republicans and Democrats who sit in a couple of rows together, laughing together. It is just - it sounds a little silly - but it's just an amazing, great sight.

I would go bold: you don't have to be a member of Congress to be the speaker of the House. I would support someone like Dr. Carson or somebody like that; I think that would be good.

Speaker Boehner is doing a great job.

Every member of Congress deserves a seat at the table to be involved in the process. I will continue fighting for this to become a reality in Washington, and will be running for speaker of the House.

I think Nancy Pelosi is extremely qualified to be speaker of the House, because she has been speaker of the House. I trust her leadership. I trust her judgment.

We need the speaker to be an institutionalist for the Congress, not to be a defender of the deep state.

Paul Ryan, along with Daniel Webster, is a totally, deeply revered and respected individual in this Congress. And I love both of them. Both of them would have made good speakers. Both of them would make a good pallbearer for a man like me. They're that dear to me.

One of the best ways to stop the failed policies coming out of Congress is to bring in the ideas and the involvement of the American people, which the America Speaking Out project is designed to do.

Mr. Obama is particularly well positioned to challenge Hollywood because of his special relationship with the media world's elites. They might be more likely to heed criticism coming from Mr. Obama than from any other president or member of Congress.

We need to take politics out of health care. Congress will cave to pretty much any special interest on the subject.

Until we make campaigns affordable, then we're going to have too many members of Congress out rattling the cup with special interest groups.

The law limits anyone from serving as president of the United States for more than eight years. And in my opinion - well, eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific Congressional district.

The Constitution of the United States... specifically states the Congress shall write legislation for immigration policy in the United States.

The Constitution's pretty clear. The Federalist papers are pretty clear... They very specifically delegated the power to declare war to Congress. They wanted this to be a congressional decision; they did not want war to be engaged in by the executive without approval of Congress.

Congress created a safe harbor for defamation in 1996 and for copyright in 1998. Both safe harbors were designed to ensure that the Internet would remain a participatory medium of speech.

Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment... Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag.

I would be concerned if any speech to Congress related any information that's new to the president of the United States.

There were speeches made in Congress in the very last session before the outbreak of the Rebellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the influence of a real frenzy.

In coming to the Congress as a new Member and becoming a fellow Blue Dog, we have had an opportunity to share and really spend a great deal of time in examining the challenges that our Nation finds itself in in getting its fiscal house in order.

Maryland needs someone in Congress who will fight to create jobs, stop out-of-control government spending and defend small businesses.

Having said that, I believe we must not compound the natural disaster of Katrina by creating a fiscal disaster in Congress - it is our duty to ensure that we reign in other government spending in any event, and especially in this time of national emergency.