James Blaszak Quotes

Not all special interest groups are bad.

The FBI has always supported big business and big government.

Economics, politics, and personalities are often inseparable.

I noticed that the highly organized lobbies in Washington were producing results regardless of the justice or injustice of their demand.

Policy and politics are always mixed up.

The consumer is the only man in our economy without a high-powered lobbyist in Washington.

It is hard for the Chinese to understand that our policies are in great part the result of a number of random actions of different domestic pressure groups and not part of an overall plan.

In the United States, the two-party system of the old days is seemingly still preserved. But this is only a camouflage of the real situation. In fact, the political life of the United States ... is determined by the struggle and aspirations of pressure groups.

… There’s a lot of [tobacco industry] financial clout up here, and they do their best to reward their friends and punish their enemies …. They’re not really trying to accomplish an agenda, they’re just trying to stop one from ever being mounted against them.

I've seen disgusting excess in business, and I've seen disgusting excess in Washington. But at the same time, I've certainly learned that Washington matters and that you can't ignore it, especially when you get into telecom.

The idea that the business world's needs get ignored in Washington is perpetuated by business so it can fulfill even more of its needs, real or imagined.

We pay a price when special interests win out over the collective national interest.

The problem is, of course, that these interest groups are all asking for changes, but their enthusiasm for change rapidly disappears when it affects the core of their own interests.

Every policy is shaped by two forces: background analysis and foreground politics. The political forces are loud, self-serving and, in the case of energy policy, well known.

Money often determines not only who gets elected, but what gets done. Which voices do lawmakers listen to, the banks or home owners, coal companies, or asthma sufferers, the CEOs or the unemployed?

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.

Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.

I think a lot of Americans are not sure which side Washington is on: the side of banks or the side of the people.

The efficiency label may frequently mask special benefits for special interests. The real questions should be more qualitative ones. Who will be affected? In what ways?

Lobbying, in large part, is conducted to prevent change from happening.

What Congress does is respond to pressures that are upon it.

Politics is about power, and it is about group power.

The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength and far less odium, under the name of influence.

You've got as much right to lobby here as any steel corporation.

As government grows bigger and more directly involved in the economy, the question of who gets what, through the medium of the lobbyist as broker, is of paramount importance.