William Frenzel Quotes

You elected government officials to make decisions and it's about time they started making good ones.

When it comes to listening to my constituents or to the governor's staff, who are more interested in their pet projects and their government cars, I'll vote for my constituents every time.

I don't care what kind of speeches you make as long as you don't vote against the appropriations.

Congress and elected bodies always tend to react. As public bodies we are behind the people.

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

It is a duty of those entrusted with the administration of their affairs to conform themselves to the decided choice of their constituents.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

We senators love to make tough speeches but hate to make tough votes.

There will only be gridlock if the people you elect to office don’t want to help you.

To get Congress to do anything.

I don't want to come to Washington to be just another vote. I want to lead on issues that are important.

We need to ask our policy makers and those we elect to office who are supposed to make decisions to give us the evidence of the facts that are behind the decisions that we make. We should be skeptical.

Let a bill, or law, be read, in the one branch or the other, every one instantly thinks how it will affect his constituents.

Lobbying is not a bad thing. I'm not trying to say that we shouldn't have lobbyists or we shouldn't have lobbying to petition our government. It's in the Constitution, and it's something that should be honorable and good.

Lobbying is just another form of advocacy. It’s like trying a lawsuit.

I do not believe that I have ever before written to an individual legislator in favor of an individual bill, but ….

If you can’t move the public, you can’t move the Congress.

You can't use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!

A legislator has thousands of issues he must decide. Five minutes of access to present your case is very valuable.

Legislators, influenced by the passions and exigencies of the moment, the pressure of constituents and colleagues, and the press of business, do not always pass sober constitutional judgments on every piece of legislation they enact.

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

We have too much legislation by clamor, tumult and pressure.

Everyone who lobbies represents someone’s particular point of view.

There are two kinds of horses; there are show horses, and there are work horses, and you've got to decide in the United States Senate whether you want to be a show horse or a work horse.

In a democracy, if the people don’t vote, the policies are made by others….The major decisions of our society are going to be made by our elected officials, like it or not.