Logrolling Quotes

Negotiating deals among members of Congress is an exercise in wearing masks, scaring up votes, and, oftentimes, bluffing.

Speaking nothing of how we often fall short in keeping our promises, we frequently play an unnecessary game of politics with key issues - using must-pass legislation such as disaster relief as a vehicle to sweeten unrelated, contentious bills that may not otherwise pass as stand-alone measures.

I prefer a simple bill which deals with a single basic issue. When you add new provisions to a bill you develop a larger coalition of opposition. Each new provision brings in more opponents who combine with the existing opponents until you no longer can pass the law.

Education is a vast sea of lies, waste, corruption, crackpot theorizing, and careerist log-rolling.

If you’re the majority party, you want to use dollars to buy votes. Ideology is not relevant.

Promise all that is asked and more if you can think of anything. Offer to build a bridge or a church, to divide a county, create a batch of new offices, make a turnpike, or anything they like. Promises cost nothing, therefore deny nobody who has a vote.

Right from the start [1902] every Senator … wanted a project in his state. Every representative wanted one in his district. They didn’t care whether they made economic sense or not.

Sometimes you hear that many politicians vote for a bill in various forms before they vote against it, or vice versa. The conflict, negotiation, and eventual compromise involved in this process form the essence of the democratic process.

Bunkum Darlington, who sat close to Walker in the House changed the spelling and gave it its generalized meaning of political rhetoric for the folks back home.]

I am firmly against the kind of logrolling which would subject our defense program to narrowly sectional or selfish pulling or hauling. But I am growing pretty hot under the collar about the way my state of West Virginia is being shortchanged by the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The process for producing public policy in Congress is flawed. The process itself kills policy ideas through the bypassing of the rules and procedural decisions that limit discussion.

You can get a coalition of senators from particular states in America, for example, who want to construct highways or dams or ports which may well be very inefficient. The taxes would be paid by the people over the whole country, but the benefits would go to the few people in those particular locations. This type of spending is a rather gross waste of resources that worsened over the years as the government has been allowed to do more particularized things.