David Brooks Quotes

I am an advocate... of public financing for years. That is the one way to get money out of politics. I believe that would be what we ought to be doing.

The way campaign funds are distributed are all a matter of record.

I also do not like the idea of soft money, these issue ads - people don't know where the money is coming from, millions and millions of dollars outside of the control of a candidate - there's no accountability.

Public campaign financing isn't perfect and can doubtlessly be improved upon as we go.

I personally think money in politics on any level is horrible. I'd like to see a set amount and have every candidate spend it. Have it be completely transparent. But actually getting to that spot, as we have learned through all the legislation over the decades, is very difficult.

If everyone in America agreed that 80 percent of their contributions for House, Senate, and president could only come from people making contributions of $100 or less, we'd have a pretty darn good system. The influence of money would be gone.

George W. Bush in 2000 went to private financing for the nomination, but he accepted public funding in the general. And, quite frankly, so did - it was broken in 2008, when Barack Obama decided he wasn't going to do that.

On the subject of money and politics and the rest, I have a DARE: Disclose who are these people; Amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United; Reform: let's have public financing of campaigns; and Empower.

I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.

As dismayed as Americans are with the influence of the special interests that finance election campaigns, they've been reluctant to embrace the alternative: taxpayer-financed elections.

Well, paycheck protection is an important ingredient for a successful campaign finance reform measure.

Democracy, if it meant what our forefathers said, that would be great, but unfortunately it's been corrupted by this funding and funding of campaigns. There's a much better way to do it. There could be a small amount of money given by every taxpayer to be dedicated to candidates.

In Canada we have limits on campaign spending and public funding of campaigns. This makes it easier for people [candidates] who don't have access to huge amounts of money.

Dependence on private money to run campaigns causes pain to Republicans and Democrats alike - and business owners. It's time we did something about it. And public financing of elections should be the first step.

The biggest issue that we have to contend with is campaign finance reform.

Voluntary public funding of elections solves the free speech 'problem' with more speech instead of more regulation: by giving qualified candidates who show broad-based constituent support enough matching public funds to mount a credible campaign.

The key to fixing public financing is to free politics from big money.

One of the things I care about a lot is public financing in elections.

I've never seen my filings. I've instructed my campaign to review my filings and check and see if any don't comply with state election laws, and return them.

Shockingly, the Government Accountability Institute has reported that the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns received questionable contributions of more than $500 million as a result of poor disclosure requirements.

Public financing would fix campaign donor problems.

So for everything I do, I'm very clear about what I'm doing, and I tell people what it's about. They get a sense of what I'm thinking. I don't let people think I'm going to write something in praise in the meatpacking industry, and then they read it and it's actually attacking the meatpacking industry.

I don't really care what people think about me if they don't let me see it.

Just relax and really say what you're actually thinking, and not what you think people want to hear.