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The People Who Started The American Government, The Founders Of The Constitution, Didn't Like Political Parties But They Were Forced To Start Them. Nobody Ever Created Political Parties In England, They Evolved. And There Do Tend To Be Two General Tendencies That Focus Around How Much Government You Think You Need.

-Barney Frank

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The People Who Started

Barney Frank

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The People Who Started The American Government, The Founders Of The Constitution, Didn't Like Political Parties But They Were Forced To Start Them. Nobody Ever Created Political Parties In England, They Evolved. And There Do Tend To Be Two General Tendencies That Focus Around How Much Government You Think You Need.

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Can I Say One Other Thing That`s Very Important? I`m Indebted To Donald Trump For A Long Time, We`ve Had This Problem That People Disliked Government. And The Health Care Bill Has Shown Reminded People And Donald Trump Has Shown People There Is Something A Lot Worse Than Government. It`s Not Government. That As Bad As They Might Have Thought The Government Was On Health Care, It`s Now Created People That The Absence Of Government Healthcare Is Even Worse.

I Was Still Closeted, But From The Day I Decided To Run For Office, Knowing That I Was Gay, I Decided That I Would, Of Course, Still Be Closeted But That I Would Work Very Hard For Gay Rights. It Would Be Totally Dishonorable, Being Gay, Not To Do That. So I Had That As Kind Of A Secondary Agenda.

There Is An Irony That The Most Active Anti-gay Groups Are Al-qaeda And The American Right Wing.

It Seems To Me That Politicians Ought To Use The Same Words As Other People.

In The Debate Between Those Who Believe In Essentially Unregulated Markets And Others Who Hold That Reasonable Regulation Diminishes Market Excesses Without Inhibiting Their Basic Function, The Subprime Situation Unfortunately Provides Ammunition For The Latter View.

Today, Many People Take For Granted The Notion That People Whose Lives Are Going To Be Very Heavily Affected By Public Policies Should Have A Say In How They Are Formulated And Carried Out.

I Don't Think Donald Trump Is The Right Person Because I Very Much Disagree With Him.

If Bob Barr (conservative Republican Congressman From Georgia) Caught On Fire And I Was Holding A Bucket Of Water, It Would Be Great Act Of Discipline To Pour It On Him. I Would Do It, But I'd Hate Myself In The Morning.

But It Is Also Clear That Left Entirely Untouched By Public Policy, The Capitalist System Will Produce More Inequality Than Is Socially Healthy Or Than Is Necessary For Maximum Efficiency.

They Appear To Have Become So Attached To Their Outrage That They Are Even More Outraged That They Won't Be Able To Be Outraged Anymore.

In America, Unlike England, Unlike Israel, Unlike Japan, Other Democracies, We Have Elections That Have Staggered Terms.

These Two Entities—fannie Mae And Freddie Mac—are Not Facing Any Kind Of Financial Crisis.

Capitalism Works Better From Every Perspective When The Economic Decision Makers Are Forced To Share Power With Those Who Will Be Affected By Those Decisions.

The Left And The Right Live In Parallel Universes. The Right Listens To Talk Radio, The Left's On The Internet And They Just Reinforce One Another. They Have No Sense Of Reality. I Have Now One Ambition: To Retire Before It Becomes Essential To Tweet.

Alec Baldwin Has Done This Great Donald Trump. I Wish Somebody Would Hire Leslie Jordan To Play Jeff Sessions. The Only Way Is To Put The Two Of Them Out There. It Is The Most Bizarre, Pathetic Silliness I Can Imagine At What Should Be The Most Serious Deliberations In The American Government.

But When Others Suggested That The Poor Should Not Simply Be The Objects Of These Programs But Also The Subjects - That They Should Be Actively Involved In Shaping The Programs, Making Decisions About How To Spend The Money Etc. - Some Of The Previous Supporters Reconsidered.

Legislators Have A Formal Set Of Responsibilities To Work Together, But There's No Hierarchy.

Working Together

Disruption Never Helps Your Cause. ... It Just Looks Like You're Afraid To Have Rational Discussion.

I Will Tell You, I'm A Lousy Cook, But I Think I'm A Pretty Good Judge Of A Good Meal.

We Don't Get Ourselves Dry Cleaned.

This Bill Is The Legislative Equivalent Of Crack. It Yields A Short-term High But Does Long-term Damage To The System And It's Expensive To Boot.

But On Those Occasions When I Do Strongly Disagree With The Democrats And I Don't Say Anything, I Think I Forfeit My Right To Have People Pay Attention To Me When I Say The Things That I Don't Like About What Republicans Are Saying.

For Many Of Those Who Had Historically Supported Welfare Programs In The Broadest Sense, It Was Perfectly Reasonable To Enact Legislation In Which Poor People Were The Objects Of Efforts To Assist Them.

Welfare Programs

Community Action Is As Valuable A Principle On The International Level As It Has Been Domestically.

Nato Was A Wonderful Idea. It Was Formed In 1949. We Are As Far Away From Nato As Nato Was When It Was Done In Time From The Presidency Of Grover Cleveland.

The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do Politically For Gay Rights Is To Come Out. Not To Write A Letter To Your Congressman But To Come Out.

I Can Tell You About Health Care And Also About The Financial Reform Bill. The Barack Obama, The President Personally And His Administration Officials At His Direction Were Very Much Involved.

The Most Active People In The Country Know Different Things, And Because Each One Tends To Hear Mostly And Deal Mostly With People With Whom They Agree, They Are Reinforced Not Simply In The Conviction That They Are Right, Which Is Totally Appropriate, But That They Are The Majority. So You Have Both Sides, The Left And The Right, Thinking That The Majority Of The Country Is Really With Them.

Lawyers Are Very, Very Good At Keeping You Out Of Prison, But They Will Sacrifice Your Reputation And Credibility To Do So.

Take Free Speech: Most Of The Tough Cases On Free Speech Involve Very Unpleasant People Saying Very Obnoxious Things.

There Is A Correlation Between People Who Attack Same-sex Marriage And Have Difficulty Maintaining Their Own.

The People Who Started The American Government, The Founders Of The Constitution, Didn't Like Political Parties But They Were Forced To Start Them. Nobody Ever Created Political Parties In England, They Evolved. And There Do Tend To Be Two General Tendencies That Focus Around How Much Government You Think You Need.

The Best Antidote To Prejudice Is Reality.

I Am Not Aware Of Any Specific Provision That Mandates Any Tightening Of Lending To Small Business Other Than A Requirement That People Who Lend And Then Sell That Loan Be Prepared To Take A Part Of The Risk. And I'm Proud Of That.

We All Have The Right To Call Each Other Names. Rudeness Is A Deeply Held Constitutional Value.

I Wouldn't Want [gay Marriage] To Go To The United States Supreme Court Now Because That Homophobe Antonin Scalia Has Too Many Votes On This Current Court.

[democrats] Are Trying On Every Front To Increase The Role Of Government.

For The Trustees To Turn Away From The Entirely Reasonable Request Of The Students That A Hearing-impaired Individual Be Made President Of The College Is A Very Unfortunate Expression Of Insensitivity.

Moderate Republicans Are Reverse Houdinis. They Tie Themselves Up In Knots And Then Tell You They Can’t Do Anything Because They’re Tied Up In Knots.

If You Care Deeply About A Cause And You Are Then Engaged On Behalf Of That Cause In An Activity That Makes You Feel Very Good And Very Brave And You're Really In Solidarity With All Your Friends, And You're Enjoying It, You're Probably Not Advancing The Cause Very Much, Because You're Spending All Your Time With People You Agree With Cheering Each Other On And Not Engaging.

Before This Learning Experience, I Had Assumed That With Regard To Programs That Sought To Help People Out Of Poverty, The Political World Was Essentially Divided Into Two Camps: Conservatives Who Opposed These For A Variety Of Reasons, And Liberals Who Supported Them.

When I Was Here There Was Still A Requirement That Students Had To Swim 50 Yards To Graduate...because Harry Elkins Widener Had Drowned With The Sinking Of The Titanic. And It Made Me Very Grateful At The Time That He Had Not Gone Down In A Plane Crash.

Funny Graduation

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The Problem With The War In Iraq Is Not So Much The Intelligence As The Stupidity.

They Have To Convert Our Agenda Into Something Aggressive. Two Guys Wanting To Be Happy Together Are Invading Their Marriages. Helping A Kid Who's Getting Beaten Up In School Is Promoting Homosexuality. If You Gave Me A Million Dollars, I Wouldn't Know How To Promote Homosexuality.

You Know, When I Was In College, There Was A Big Debate: Do Unions Raise Wages? Well, With Regard To Industrial Unions, There Were Arguments Back And Forth -- International Competition. It Is Now Clear, I Think, That Whether Or Not You Think Unions Raised Wages 50 Years Ago, The Absence Of Unions And Their Weakness That Is Inflicted By Anti-union Public Policy Depresses Wages. The Fact Is That People Who Are Not Represented, In The Service Industries In Particular, Are The Victims Of Policies Which Depress Their Wages.

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What's Troubling Is That The Republicans To Defend Mr. Delay Are Weakening The Ethics Process.

Trying To Avert Foreclosures, Once You Can't Just Force The Banks To Do It As A Condition Of Getting Aid, Means That You Have To Put Some Public Money Into It Or You Have To Do Other Things That Are Politically Unpopular. From The Macroeconomic Standpoint There Is Overwhelming Need To Help People Reduce What They Owe So That We Don't Get The Foreclosures And We Don't Get People Kicked Out Of Their Homes. On The Other Hand, There Is Great Resistance Politically To Helping People, Not All Of Whom Would Be Worth Recipients Of The Help.

Bush Senior Used To Say That We Have More Will Than Wallet. So He Urged The Country To Attack Poverty With A Thousand Points Of Light, None Of Which Could Be Eaten.

Most People Who Are Activists And Are Concerned About Issues Get Their Information From Sources Which Reinforce Their Opinions And Give Them The Facts That They Want To Hear.

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Equality Under The Law

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I Have Been Mislabeled As A Big Advocate Of Low-income Home Ownership Over Rental.

Going Before An Audience Of People Who Expect You To Be Funny Is Tough. Going Before An Audience That Expect You To Be Boring, And Then Being A Little Funny, Is Much Easier. I Prefer Easier.

Let Us Not Say That We Will Decide On A Political Basis At The National Level That No State Is Competent To Regulate The Practice Of Medicine In That State If They Decide To Allow A Doctor To Prescribe Marijuana, Because That Is What We Are Talking About.

Practice Of Medicine

But Here Too It Should Be Noted That The President's Approach Was To First Ask The Repressive And Brutal Taliban To Surrender Osama Bin Laden To Us, And Only After That Government Refused To Do That Did We Invade.

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Serving In Congress Is Like Having A Second Shot At High School.

If People Knew Of Ethics Violations, They Should Have Sent Them To The Ethics Committee. If You Think There Was Serious Ethics Violation That Ought To Be Looked At, You Don't Hold It Back For Retaliatory Purposes.

There Were A Lot Of Romneys. There's The Romney Who Was Going To Be Better On Gay Rights Than Ted Kennedy; Now There's A Romney Who Checks With Rick Santorum On That Issue.

I Hope We Will Not So Characterize Religious People As Being So Narrow And So Biased Towards People Not Of Their Own Religion That They Cannot Even Work With Them In This Common Cause To Which You Say They Are Committed.

I Think There Was An Absolute, Deep Gap Between Consensual Relations Between Adults, Which People May Like Or Dislike, And People Who Physically Impose Themselves On Children Or Misuse Their Authority To Impose On Children.

These Two Entities Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Are Not Facing Any Kind Of Financial Crisis. The More People Exaggerate These Problems, The More Pressure There Is On These Companies, The Less We Will See In Terms Of Affordable Housing.

Affordable Housing

And Unless You Think There Is A Serious Chance You're Going To Jail, Don't Listen To Your Lawyer.

The Issue Is Not That Morals Be Applied To Public Policy, It's That Conservatives Bring Public Policy To Spheres Of Our Lives Where It Should Not Enter.

Nothing In The World Is As Mobile As Capital. It Can Move Anywhere In The World Instantaneously.

I Had Always Been Interested In Politics. I Had Assumed - For Two Reasons, Being Jewish And Being Gay Back In The Late '50s, Early '60s - That I Would Never Be Elected Or Anything, But I Would Participate As An Activist.

Whenever People Are Being Intellectually Dishonest In Debate, It Is An Implicit Concession They Have Lost The Fight

The Fact That Theyre A Congressionally Chartered Group Should No More Incline People To Give To That Group Than The Fact That Its National Pickle Month Should Make Them Eat More Pickles.

Ridicule Is About The Most Powerful Weapon Possible.

And I Think There Is Too Much Bloviating Around From Politicians.

I Smoke A Cigar Or Two A Day. I Did Have A Brownie Once. It Made Me Sleepy.

I Do Have Things I Would Like To See Adopted On Behalf Of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual And Transgender People: They Include The Right To Marry The Individual Of Our Choice; The Right To Serve In The Military To Defend Our Country; And The Right To A Job Based Solely On Our Own Qualifications. I Acknowledge That This Is An Agenda, But I Do Not Think That Any Self-respecting Radical In History Would Have Considered Advocating People's Rights To Get Married, Join The Army, And Earn A Living As A Terribly Inspiring Revolutionary Platform.

The Rights Of The People Who Have Done Terrible Things Are Hard To Defend. You Have To Keep Pointing Out, The Question Is The Process To Determine Whether They've Done The Terrible Things.

People Are Entitled To The Presumption Of Innocence.

Presumption Of Innocence

I Do Not Believe That The Federal Government Should Treat Adults Who Choose To Smoke Marijuana As Criminals.

Donald Trump Has Done More For Getting People To Understand The Importance Of Public Policy That Respond To Public Needs In An Affirmative Way Than Anything We Could Have Done On Our Own.

For Most Of My Life, I Have Eaten To Deal With Stress.

Dealing With Stress

Ronald Reagan Got A Lot Of Democrats. I Wish He Hadn`t. I Got To Congress With Reagan Coming To The Whitehouse. The Reagan Program, A Very Radical One, A Very Drastic One Passed Because He Had A Lot Of Democrats. He Worked At It Personally And Also Because Reagan Retained A Popularity.

Conservatives Believe That From The Standpoint Of The Federal Government, Life Begins At Conception And Ends At Birth.

When Community Action Was Put Into Federal Law In The Early Sixties As Part Of The Effort To Combat Poverty And Social Injustice, I Supported It Intellectually.

I Have This Fear That One Day There's Going To Be A Fire In The Senate And There Are Only Going To Be 57 Senators There And They’ll All Die Because They Won't Have 60 Votes To Allow Themselves To Leave The Building.

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