Legislative Stagnation Quotes

I think politics is a reason why a lot of stuff doesn't get done. There's a lot of favors, and a lot of people are held back by their intentions of being re-elected or the things that they owe their party or constituents.

I do hope that next year Republicans and Democrats will do nothing.

Incumbents are safe, but party majorities are not. This fosters symbolic votes, message politics and little serious legislating in Congress.

I've had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress.

The 113th Congress has spent much of the year doing nothing but collecting campaign contributions …

We're all tired of a Washington that has these partisan camps where nothing gets done.

We have a paralysis in Washington that's not serving our country. We have to address these issues.

Folks, the zombies are not on television - they are in Washington, D.C., and they meet at the Capitol Hill Club and call themselves 'Realists.'

I think Washington watchers keep their eye on what's coming out of Congress legislatively, and they don't see anything. They see Trump meeting and talking and doing things, and they don't see any legislation. To them, everything's legislation. I don't think they're aware of how Trump does things.

We all joke about Congress but we can't improve on them. Have you noticed that no matter who we elect, he is just as bad as the one he replaces?

Our national political campaigns never stop. We seem convinced that majorities exist to impose their will with few concessions and that minorities exist to prevent the party in power from doing anything important. That's not how we were meant to govern.

The sky is always falling or the sky is always bright. In some ways, this is really morning in America and we don't see it. People are living longer, the economy is doing pretty well. On the other hand, there are some ways of thinking in the current situation that make it look not so good, including our Star Wars prequels - like legislature, meaning they're talking a lot, not doing a lot.

These 10 steps, if rigorously followed and enforced, will accomplish more in a matter of months than our politicians have accomplished on this issue in the last 50 years. It's going to happen.

In America, the political system just is paralyzed for whatever reason. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, in that it's just become this giant blob bureaucracy, the primary objective is self-preservation, and the definition of self-preservation is don't do anything because then you continue to illustrate where you're needed.

Aging nations have arteries clogged with obsolete laws, slowing blood flow and preventing oxygen from reaching all parts of the body politic. Physicians call this arteriosclerosis; historians see decline of empire.

[Describing Congress:] We generally lounge or squabble the greater part of the session, and crowd into a few days of the last of the term three or four times the business done during as many preceding months.

What's really important is how our country gets through Trump period, because nothing's getting done in Washington. Every day it's another set of tweets and another set of controversies. And they're not getting anything done.

I think sometimes Richmond, especially the House of Delegates, thinks too small... Richmond is not doing what needs to be done, forward thinking, big bold ideas.