Quotes About Lobbying

There has been an Irish lobby that has impacted U.S. foreign policy for a century and a half, and at times made our relations with Great Britain very difficult. Other comparable lobbies exist.

Trusting your energy policy to the fossil fuel lobby is like trusting your health care system to the tobacco lobby.

I did this within a philosophical framework, and a moral and legal framework. And I have been turned into a cartoon of the greatest villain in the history of lobbying.

Even I realized that money was to politicians what the eucalyptus tree is to koala bears: food, water, shelter, and something to crap on.

Eminent nutritionists have traded their independence for the food industry's favors.

The commercial broadcasters have tremendous influence in Washington, D.C., for a couple of reasons. First, they're extremely rich and they have lots of money and they have had for a long time, so they can give money to politicians, which gets their attention.

The groups who spend the most on lobbying lawmakers in Washington are well-known: ExxonMobil, Boeing, AT&T, General Electric.

The corporate lobby in Washington is basically designed to stifle all legislative activity on behalf of consumers.

Washington's a dangerous place.

You know the way Washington works. Once you start floating ideas, they are immediately attacked by all the different interest groups before the ideas can be brought to fruition.

Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.

In the U.S. you have a system of lobbying and influence on our policy and law makers which is incredibly pronounced. The gas industry spent $250 million getting an exemption from our Safe Water Act. Every one of those dollars is toxic; a contaminant in our political system. It disrupts the normal flow of justice, science, fact and reporting.

America's political system has evolved over the last 50 years in ways that have enhanced the power of business lobbies.

One is only susceptible to lobbying if they're weak and they trust what an individual tells them without verification.

The thing about politicians in Britain is that they are out there, you can lobby them, get close to them, there are loads of ways you can protest against them, and booing is a pretty weak way of doing it.

You shouldn't have political action committees.

In reality, everybody in Congress is a stand-in for some kind of lobbyist. In many cases it's difficult to tell whether it's the companies that are lobbying the legislators or whether it's the other way around.

Does it seem like Washington's rigged for the well connected? That's because it is.

When legislators do something that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, there's always the suspicion that they're in somebody's pocket.

Money is power in American politics. It always has been.

People like Elizabeth Dole have given too much power to the special interests.

I think if you do term limits, you would really increase the power of lobbying.

As more wealth and political power is amassed - as bitcoins rise in value - Congress and various lobbying groups will be influenced to an ever greater extent by the interests of Bitcoin owners who - in turn - will lobby to keep the Internet and Bitcoin alive and growing.

I think Matt Yglesias is wrong to declare that the world of 'This Town' is dying, unless he thinks publicly financed elections, strict lobbying bans and Scandinavian-style wealth distribution are imminent.