quotations about the U.S. Congress
You send me to Washington to represent you in the senate. But you do not send me there because you are interested in grave questions of national or international policy. When I come back to Arizona, you never ask me any questions about such policies; instead you ask me: "What about my pension?" or "What about that job for my son?" I am not in Washington as a statesman. I am there as a very well paid messenger boy doing your errands. My chief occupation is going around with a forked stick picking up little fragments of patronage for my constituents.
HENRY FOUNTAIN ASHURST
attributed, Rocky Mountain Politics
The truth is being more and more realized by the public that, other things being equal or anywhere near equal, the value of the Representative or Senator increases in proportion to his length of service. A man must learn to be a Representative or Senator, just as he must learn to be a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, merchant, engineer, lawyer, doctor, preacher, teacher, or anything else. Of course some men learn quicker than others--some of exceptional ability and powers of observation very speedily, and some not at all. The best plan for a constituency to pursue is to select a man of good sense, good habits, and perfect integrity, young enough to learn, and re-elect him so long as he retains his faculties and is faithful to his trust. Such a man grows into power and high position as surely as the sparks fly upward.
CHAMP CLARK
My Quarter Century of American Politics
As for Congress, one imaginative polling firm found that brussels sprouts, head lice, cockroaches, colonoscopies, and gonorrhea were more popular than our elected representatives.
CHARLIE LEDUFF
Sh*tshow!
Members of Congress are like the voters in one respect -- they want to go with the winners.
RALPH NADER
Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!
Papers say: "Congress is deadlocked and can't act." I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.
WILL ROGERS
Weekly Article #59, January 27, 1924
Sounds become more like other sounds that neighbor them. That is why one congressman oinks, another moos, and another bleats.
BAUVARD
Evergreens Are Prudish
I could study all my life and not think up half the amount of funny things they can think of in one Session of Congress.
WILL ROGERS
Will Rogers' Weekly Articles: The Coolidge Years
No matter how short the session, Congress always has the necessary time to pass the unnecessary legislation.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
In Congress the majority governs, but the minority rules.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Give us at least a plausible apology why congress should keep their proceedings in secret. They have the power of keeping them in secret as long as they please; for the provision for a periodical publication is too inexplicit and ambiguous to avail any thing. The expression, from time to time, as I have more than once observed, admits of any extension. They may carry on the most wicked and pernicious of schemes under the dark veil of secrecy. The liberties of a people never were nor ever will be secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
PATRICK HENRY
speech on the expediency of adopting the Federal Constitution, June 7, 1788
Our "bipartisan" Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group.... Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where's labor? Activists? Frontline community leaders?
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
Twitter post, December 6, 2018
Not one British citizen in a thousand watches what is done in Parliament; not one in a thousand Americans follows the discourses of Congress. Interest has gone. Every election in the past thirty years has been fought on gross misunderstandings.
H.G. WELLS
The Holy Terror
With Congress, every time they make a joke it's a law. And every time they make a law it's a joke.
WILL ROGERS
Will Rogers: Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and Wisdom
Congress would give the people what they wanted if the people knew what they wanted, and if Congress could give it to them.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Congress is like first grade ... only not as well behaved.
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY
Times Herald-Record, March 2, 2013
To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature Congressman.
MARK TWAIN
New York Daily Tribune, Mar. 10, 1873
Talk is cheap -- except when Congress does it.
CULLEN HIGHTOWER
attributed, The Greatest Quotations of All Time
Congress has always had a soft spot for “experts” who tell members what they want to hear, whether it’s supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth.
PAUL KRUGMAN
"Fuels on the Hill,", New York Times, Jun. 27, 2008
Congress, by the power of taxation, by that of raising an army, and by their control over the militia, have the sword in one hand and the purse in the other. Shall we be safe without either?
PATRICK HENRY
speech on the expediency of adopting the Federal Constitution, June 7, 1788
A new study published by The British Medical Journal found that inactivity can kill you. I mean, these are the kind of findings that just scare the hell out of Congress.
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show, Jul. 23, 2012