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
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
It wasn’t until after I was reelected in 1982 that I thought of myself as a long-term member of Congress. – Barney Frank
While I was pleasantly surprised by the relatively high number of jobs created in April, the fact is that job creation during this recovery period has significantly lagged both historical experience in recovery, and the projections of the Bush Administration. – Barney Frank
Community action is as valuable a principle on the international level as it has been domestically. – Barney Frank
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
Pat Moynihan could write books with one hand and legislate with the other. I can’t; I have a short attention span. The slightest distraction would take me away from writing. – Barney Frank
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
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
Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so. – Barney Frank
Well, many of us believe that excessive media concentration is a subject that ought to be addressed, and it is, of course, the intention of the majority party not to allow that to be discussed. – Barney Frank
Before this learning experience, I had assumed that with regard to programs that sought to help people out of poverty, the political world was essentially divided into two camps: conservatives who opposed these for a variety of reasons, and liberals who supported them. – Barney Frank
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
In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms. – Barney Frank
The Clinton tax increase – which was an increase in taxes primarily on upper-income people – not only made the tax code more nearly progressive, it preceded one of the most productive economic periods in American life. – Barney Frank
As a liberal, I am morally obligated to be pragmatic. What good do I do poor people, elderly people, people who are being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation if I’m not realistic about accomplishing something. – Barney Frank
I am very proud of the role I played in getting legal equality for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and in helping get rid of the prejudice by being visible about it, helping to block the conviction of Bill Clinton of impeachment. – Barney Frank
Let us not say that we will decide on a political basis at the national level that no State is competent to regulate the practice of medicine in that State if they decide to allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana, because that is what we are talking about. – Barney Frank
The left and the right live in parallel universes. The right listens to talk radio, the left’s on the Internet and they just reinforce one another. They have no sense of reality. I have now one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet. – Barney Frank
Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there’s no hierarchy. – Barney Frank
But it is also clear that left entirely untouched by public policy, the capitalist system will produce more inequality than is socially healthy or than is necessary for maximum efficiency. – Barney Frank
In this view, the role of the great majority of Americans is simply to buy the products produced, work happily for their wages, and leave all of the significant economic decisions to the capitalists. – Barney Frank
But here too it should be noted that the President’s approach was to first ask the repressive and brutal Taliban to surrender Osama bin Laden to us, and only after that government refused to do that did we invade. – Barney Frank
I will tell you, I’m a lousy cook, but I think I’m a pretty good judge of a good meal. – Barney Frank
I think there was an absolute, deep gap between consensual relations between adults, which people may like or dislike, and people who physically impose themselves on children or misuse their authority to impose on children. – Barney Frank
I am not a great theologian. I know there is a theological concept called invincible ignorance in which a strong enough faith binds you to any facts to the contrary. – Barney Frank
Capitalism works better from every perspective when the economic decision makers are forced to share power with those who will be affected by those decisions. – Barney Frank
