Tina Smith Quotes

I think we have to look at the whole way campaigns are financed. The No. 1 problem is PAC and special-interest money.

I think the idea of getting money out of politics is critical.

Well I think money has been going into political campaigns for a very long time.

We must reduce the influence of money in politics, beginning by overturning Citizens United and taking back our system from the millionaires and billionaires who can give unlimited and undisclosed amounts of money to influence our elections.

The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound.

I don't think politicians should be allowed to take money for their campaigns from outside interests.

While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.

All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law.

Not since the gilded age has our politics been opened so wide to corporate contribution and donations from secret sources.

I will not be doing Super-Pacs of any sort. I think allowing unlimited contributions to campaigns is a terrible and an unfortunate step towards plutocracy.

We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws and the immediate dissolution of the despotic Federal Elections Commission.

Until we make campaigns affordable, then we're going to have too many members of Congress out rattling the cup with special interest groups.

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.

I would do away with super PACs. I think it's a cancer.

Without putting the brakes on out-of-control campaign contributions from individuals and corporations - it will be business as usual, with 1 percent of Americans pulling the strings.

Corporations are not people. They shouldn't be funding. They shouldn't be funding campaigns at all.

Trying to take money out of politics is like trying to take jumping out of basketball.

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.

The Tea Party elites gained extraordinary influence by being able to funnel millions of undisclosed dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government.

Few developments in campaigning have been as vilified and misunderstood as independent expenditure PACs, or, as they are colloquially known, super PACs.

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.

I can tell you that too much money is corrupting American politics. Don't blame the American public. The U.S. Supreme Court has a lot to answer for, because it has made it impossible for Congress to reduce the corrupting influence of money on American political life.

The American system of political spending is so unregulated that it might make Adam Smith rethink free markets.

We need a complete ban on soft money, which is sort of an enveloping problem, and a ceiling on the amount of money that can be spent on a given race.

Soft money is the silent killer of health care reform and other legislation we need.