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In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.

Barney Frank

Increasing inequality in income distribution in this country has broader policy implications, and there is also the growing problem of perverse incentives that result from executives receiving grossly disproportionate compensation based on decisions they themselves take.
BARNEY FRANK

Country Decision Receiving
In a free society, a large degree of human activity is none of the government’s business. We should make criminal what’s going to hurt other people and other than that we should leave it to people to make their own choices.
BARNEY FRANK

Government Hurt People
Ridicule is about the most powerful weapon possible.
BARNEY FRANK

Politics Powerful Weapons
Nothing in the world is as mobile as capital. It can move anywhere in the world instantaneously.
BARNEY FRANK

Mobile Moving World
Excessive partisanship is the problem. There has never been a democracy in the history of the world in a polity of any size where you didn’t have political parties. Even sometimes over the objections of the people who started it.
BARNEY FRANK

Party People Political
Most people who are activists and are concerned about issues get their information from sources which reinforce their opinions and give them the facts that they want to hear.
BARNEY FRANK

Giving Issues People
I have been mislabeled as a big advocate of low-income home ownership over rental.
BARNEY FRANK

Home Income Low Ownership
Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there’s no hierarchy.
BARNEY FRANK

Hierarchy Responsibility Together Working
It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential.
BARNEY FRANK

Aquarium Community Fighting
In the debate between those who believe in essentially unregulated markets and others who hold that reasonable regulation diminishes market excesses without inhibiting their basic function, the subprime situation unfortunately provides ammunition for the latter view.
BARNEY FRANK

Believe Excess Views
If people knew of ethics violations, they should have sent them to the Ethics Committee. If you think there was serious ethics violation that ought to be looked at, you don’t hold it back for retaliatory purposes.
BARNEY FRANK

People Serious Thinking Violation
Donald Trump has done more for getting people to understand the importance of public policy that respond to public needs in an affirmative way than anything we could have done on our own.
BARNEY FRANK

Done Importance People
NATO was a wonderful idea. It was formed in 1949. We are as far away from NATO as NATO was when it was done in time from the presidency of Grover Cleveland.
BARNEY FRANK

Cleveland Done Ideas
But on those occasions when I do strongly disagree with the Democrats and I don’t say anything, I think I forfeit my right to have people pay attention to me when I say the things that I don’t like about what Republicans are saying.
BARNEY FRANK

People Say Anything Thinking
When I was here there was still a requirement that students had to swim 50 yards to graduate…because Harry Elkins Widener had drowned with the sinking of the Titanic. And it made me very grateful at the time that he had not gone down in a plane crash.
BARNEY FRANK

Funny Graduation Grateful Swim
Bush senior used to say that we have more will than wallet. So he urged the country to attack poverty with a thousand points of light, none of which could be eaten.
BARNEY FRANK

Country Light Senior
What’s troubling is that the Republicans to defend Mr. DeLay are weakening the ethics process.
BARNEY FRANK

Delay Ethics Republican
Conservatives believe that from the standpoint of the federal government, life begins at conception and ends at birth.
BARNEY FRANK

Believe Birth Government
If Bob Barr (conservative republican congressman from Georgia) caught on fire and I was holding a bucket of water, it would be great act of discipline to pour it on him. I would do it, but I’d hate myself in the morning.
BARNEY FRANK

Fire Hate Morning
The issue is not that morals be applied to public policy, it’s that conservatives bring public policy to spheres of our lives where it should not enter.
BARNEY FRANK

Issues Moral Spheres
They appear to have become so attached to their outrage that they are even more outraged that they won’t be able to be outraged anymore.
BARNEY FRANK

Able Outrage Outraged
This bill is the legislative equivalent of crack. It yields a short-term high but does long-term damage to the system and it’s expensive to boot.
BARNEY FRANK

Doe Long Yield
It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people.
BARNEY FRANK

People Politician Use
Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so.
BARNEY FRANK

Lawyer Reputation Sacrifice
The problem with the war in Iraq is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.
BARNEY FRANK

Country Stupidity War
I wouldn’t want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court.
BARNEY FRANK

Country Gay People United States
I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything?
BARNEY FRANK

Believe Country Good Thing

In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.

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In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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