There are a lot of people in Congress who would never have made a great career or fortune in any other profession. But after they spend a while hanging out with the rich guys, they begin to feel they've been undervalued, and that an eventual seven-figure income as a lobbyist isn't just an opportunity, it's their due.

Gail Collins

The crush of lobbyists on Washington and purchase of the media by corporations has created a big business-run government and a worthless press leaving Americans screwed and ill-informed.

Adam McKay

Men Government Business

The ability of big money to shape perceptions - where you have four anti-climate lobbyists for every single member of the House and Senate - is a big factor.

Al Gore

Money You Where

Nobody ever wins the first time they run for office. Nobody's ever supposed to win their first bid for office. Nobody's ever supposed to win without taking lobbyists' money. No one's ever supposed to defeat an incumbent. No one's ever supposed to run a grassroots campaign without running any ads on television. We did all of those things.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Time Money Without

I knew that our community needed a very clear voice. and I think we deserved representation that rejected lobbyist funds and put our voters and our community first.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Voters Voter Vote

Until we actually get legislation that protects our rights online, we will continue to fight against stupid, lobbyist-bought legislation. We want bills that protect us, not ones that destroy us.

Alexis Ohanian

Will Want Us

Too often government responds to the whispers of lobbyists before the cries of the people.

Andrew Cuomo

Men Government Whisper

DeSantis can do the bidding of big business and big lobbyists and Donald Trump and his divisive rhetoric. I'm going to be here to do the business of the people of the state of Florida. That's the job of the governor of this state.

Andrew Gillum

Business Us Trump

In their political careers, Obama and Biden faced down lobbyists, Tea Party carpetbaggers, and Washington gridlock.

Andrew Shaffer

Pet Car Art

Working families are worried about affordable health care, public education, and earning enough to get ahead. Our people should know that Frankfort is working to solve the challenges they're facing - not furthering the self-interests of lobbyists and insiders.

Andy Beshear

Work Health Education

If a lobbyist sets up shop, or a lawyer, in which they're receiving income through what is something like a tax loophole so that it's not counting as corporate income, that is what this is counting as a small business.

Austan Goolsbee

Business Which Us

Coal and oil lobbyists added fossil fuels to a bill aimed at helping American manufacturers, so they too could claim 'manufacturing' tax deductions.

Bernie Sanders

Too Tax T

Congress continues to pass laws to limit lobbyists' influence, but people find ways to get around them.

Bob Beckel

Ways Way UN

Unless public officials are wealthy and fund their own campaigns, the only place they can turn to is lobbyists and institutions like labor unions and corporations.

Bob Beckel

Wealthy Wealth Unless

We work for the families back home, we do not work for the lobbyists that prowl the halls of the capital building, do not forget who we work for.

Brian Schweitzer

Work Home Who

Because Bernie is going to bring in progressives and not lobbyists and people who are pro-corporate... for the establishment of the Democratic party, Bernie Sanders was more dangerous than Donald Trump.

Cenk Uygur

Men Art Anger

The need to do something about global warming is obvious. And it's also pretty clear that the public understands the need for change and is ready to embrace it. What is missing is political will in Congress to stand up to the powerful energy companies and their well-paid lobbyists.

Chellie Pingree

War Power Change

Lobbyists didn't descend from a spaceship. They evolved organically from the way we do business.

Christopher Buckley

Space Business Way

We make our public servants jump through quite a few hoops, you know. We get hysterical if they accept a $50 lunch from a lobbyist. We get hysterical if they accept a ride on some corporate jet.

Christopher Buckley

You Van UN

This is the fundamental problem with the ruling class in Washington, D.C. - the party bosses, the K Street crowd, the lobbyists who control all these politicians. They will do anything to maintain their power. They will do anything. They will say anything.

Corey Lewandowski

Power Men Art

The average guy doesn't have an army of lobbyists and lawyers working on his behalf every day in the White House.

Dan Bongino

Work Age Working

If a gigantic asteroid were barreling toward impact with our planet, you can bet there would be at least a few members of Congress who would insist on leaving it alone, either because they would see it as a warning shot from the Almighty or because a mining company with a savvy team of lobbyists had laid claim to the big rock.

David Horsey

The American people are screaming out saying it's unfair that the wealthiest, the largest corporations who can afford the best attorneys, the best accountants, take advantage of these special tax treatments that the lobbyists have, along with lawmakers, have cooked in the books here.

David Plouffe

I'm running for president because I've had enough of the oil barons, the status-quo apologists, the special-interest lobbyists running amok.

Dick Gephardt

I have had lobbyists, and I have had some very good ones. They could do anything.

Donald Trump

It should scare every voter in the 5th District that a powerful D.C. lobbyist is trying to install a personal congressman in our part of Connecticut.

Elizabeth Esty

The fact is, Missouri's budget is broken. For decades, insiders, special interests, lobbyists and prior politicians have made a mess of our budget.

Eric Greitens

For too long, Missouri has been run by career politicians, owned by corrupt consultants, high-paid lobbyists and special interests.

Eric Greitens

We have a culture of political corruption in Jefferson City. We have corrupt politicians, well-paid lobbyists and special-interest insiders taking the state in the wrong direction.

Eric Greitens

The average American doesn't realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists.

Eric Schmidt

The bottom line is we need a tax code that is more simpler, that is more fairer, that gets rid of the special carve-outs, the special lobbyist loopholes. That's the direction we need to go.

Erik Paulsen

The judge turned his back towards me, sitting back on his judge's chair, while I was in the witness stand being questioned. The whole courtroom was full of these anarchists, leftists, communists and Jewish lobbyists.

Ernst Zundel

What I do like about Donald Trump is that he's not bought by the lobbyists. He put up his own money, funded his own campaign. That means he's nobody's puppet.

Fat Joe

There are a lot of people in Congress who would never have made a great career or fortune in any other profession. But after they spend a while hanging out with the rich guys, they begin to feel they've been undervalued, and that an eventual seven-figure income as a lobbyist isn't just an opportunity, it's their due.

Gail Collins

I don't want to be a lobbyist. I want to provide strategic advice to companies. I said both of those things in the course of the interview, and I made clear this is a matter only for after I had become a private citizen and I was no longer a member of parliament.

Geoff Hoon

I'm not a legislator. I've never been a lobbyist. I've never worked a session before, but based on my conversations with leadership in the Senate and the House, I get the general sense that people want to work together to make things happen.

George P. Bush

I'm a lobbyist and had a career lobbying. The guy who gets elected or the lady who gets elected president of the United States will immediately be lobbying. They would be advocating to the Congress, they'll be lobbying our allies and our adversaries overseas. They'll be asking the business community and labor unions.

Haley Barbour

We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel. You can't open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but if you say one thing about Israel, and you're off limits.

Helen Thomas

Policy is no longer being written by politicians accountable to the American public. Instead, policies concerning the defense budget, deregulation, health care, public transportation, job training programs, and a host of other crucial areas are now largely written by lobbyists who represent mega corporations.

Henry Giroux

The President is the people's lobbyist.

Hubert H. Humphrey

Global poverty is the product of reversible policy failures overseen by politicians, past and present. The poorest of the poor don't vote in American or European elections. They don't make donations to political parties or hire lobbyists in D.C., London or Canberra.

Hugh Evans

Lobbying has become a term of reproach, as if it were improper to push for a particular belief. This has happened because of paid lobbyists whose opinions are for hire and the fear that decision-makers, whether politicians or officials, are susceptible to their charms and wiles. This has tarred entirely proper lobbying with the same brush.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

My brother was an improviser. He's now a lobbyist, but he used to perform improv in the city when he was in high school, and one of the funniest guys I know to this day.

Jake Johnson

The institution of the family has very few friends in Washington. There are lobbyists in Washington for every possible entity, from the possum-growers of America to every kind of crazy thing. There's somebody in Washington paid to advance the cause of that particular business, but there's not a lot of support for the family.

James Dobson

Many of the earmark request forms are actually filled out by lobbyists and then just turned in by the member's staff to the appropriations committee.

Jeff Flake

My four years as governor, I never met with a lobbyist once, never. Not one lobbyist got in my office.

Jesse Ventura

Barack Obama's large contributor was Goldman Sachs - same thing on the Republican side. If you go to both their conventions, you see the same lobbyists paying off both sides so they win either way.

Jesse Ventura

Fairness has not been enhanced by the tax code, but lobbyists have been made rich, politicians have been re-elected, and the economy has been made to suffer.

Jim Bridenstine

Mr. President, the buzz saw that your healthcare bill ran into wasn't lobbyists and special interests it was tens of millions of American's who were saying, 'Stop!'

John Boehner

I have seen the times when the grassroots has moved the Congress. We listen way more often to our constituents than the lobbyists. And the grassroots are going to have to do it.

John Linder

America is one of the biggest businesses in the world, and the people who run it can't balance their budget. We need business people in there and lobbyists out of there.

John Paul DeJoria