Barney Frank Quotes & Sayings

I will tell you, I'm a lousy cook, but I think I'm a pretty good judge of a good meal. — Barney Frank

It is, of course, further indication that a fundamentalist right has really taken over much of the Republican Party, People might cite George Bush as proof that you can be totally impervious to the effects of Harvard and Yale education. — Barney Frank

In this view, the role of the great majority of Americans is simply to buy the products produced, work happily for their wages, and leave all of the significant economic decisions to the capitalists. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

There were a lot of Romneys. There was the Romney who was ; going to be better on gay rights than Ted Kennedy; now there's the Romney who checks with Rick Santorum on that issue. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

The problem with the war in Iraq is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity. — Barney Frank

Well, I don't give it out very often, but I reject the notion that you have to be a practitioner to give good advice. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I'm used to being in the minority. I'm a left-handed gay Jew. I've never felt, automatically, a member of any majority. — Barney Frank

There was a degree of interventionism in American foreign policy, the notion that we must be the superpower and we have to intervene everywhere, that I think makes no sense. — Barney Frank

Martin Luther King said, and it is sadly still true, that one of the most segregated times in America is the hour of worship. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

The Clinton tax increase - which was an increase in taxes primarily on upper-income people - not only made the tax code more nearly progressive, it preceded one of the most productive economic periods in American life. — Barney Frank

The best antidote to prejudice is reality. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

As a liberal, I am morally obligated to be pragmatic. What good do I do poor people, elderly people, people who are being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation if I'm not realistic about accomplishing something. — Barney Frank

We all have the right to call each other names. Rudeness is a deeply held constitutional value. — Barney Frank

In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

Southern racists were able to protect murderers only because their legislators exploited fears of centralized power. — Barney Frank

I do not believe that the federal government should treat adults who choose to smoke marijuana as criminals. — Barney Frank

For most of my life, I have eaten to deal with stress. — Barney Frank

Whenever people are being intellectually dishonest in debate, it is an implicit concession they have lost the fight — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything? — Barney Frank

These two entities - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - are not facing any kind of financial crisis, — Barney Frank

We don't get ourselves dry cleaned. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

Disruption never helps your cause. It just looks like you're afraid to have rational discussion. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities, because you have people who don't want to study the social sciences, because it's not profitable, and now Newt, as the highest-paid historian in American history, may be an encouragement to people to study history. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I had always been interested in politics. I had assumed, for a variety of - well, 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. — Barney Frank

The public is ready now for a safety net for the middle class, something not just for the poor, but for everyone who will need help, from time to time, in order to own a home, educate their kids, keep themselves healthy or have something to retire on. — Barney Frank

There is a correlation between people who attack same-sex marriage and have difficulty maintaining their own. — Barney Frank

The Moral Majority supports legislators who oppose abortions but also oppose child nutrition and day care. From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth. — Barney Frank

[Democrats] are trying on every front to increase the role of government. — Barney Frank

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 the 60 votes to allow themselves to leave the building. — Barney Frank

The regulation of medicine has been a State function. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

There's a lot to be said for not displacing people. — Barney Frank

Particularly marijuana, I think is a great hypocrisy. I think frankly it contributes to a good deal of the sense of unfairness you have among younger people who are told they shouldn't do this because it's got all these negative effects, but then older people are engaging in all kinds of things that probably have a greater impact on people. — Barney Frank

The best humor is offered up by the stupidity of your opponents. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

While I was pleasantly surprised by the relatively high number of jobs created in April, the fact is that job creation during this recovery period has significantly lagged both historical experience in recovery, and the projections of the Bush Administration. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I filed the first gay rights bill in Massachusetts history in 1972 in the legislature, one of the first in the country. — Barney Frank

I'm a good legislator. I'm a bad some other things. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

Serving in Congress is like having a second shot at high school. — Barney Frank

Ronald Reagan believes in the free market like some people believe in unicorns. — Barney Frank

The fact that they're a congressionally chartered group should no more incline people to give to that group than the fact that it's National Pickle Month should make them eat more pickles. — Barney Frank

We were giving advice for the single-worst idea to come forward from a group that's been rife with them, it would be this: The idea is this: Let's make the tax code of America better for very rich people; let's give substantial tax relief to the richest people we can find. Forget about the person making $40,000 a year and paying Social Security payroll tax. Forget about all those other people paying income tax; we're here to give tax relief to the richest 2% of America. — Barney Frank

I smoke a cigar or two a day. I did have a brownie once. It made me sleepy. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

Community action is as valuable a principle on the international level as it has been domestically. — Barney Frank

Television is apparently the enemy of nuance. But nuance is essential for a thoughtful discussion. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

People are entitled to the presumption of innocence. — Barney Frank

And unless you think there is a serious chance you're going to jail, don't listen to your lawyer. — Barney Frank

I should have voted for the first Iraq war. George Bush did that one very well. I had been skeptical. I was afraid that George Bush was going to treat the first Iraq war the way his son treated the second. — Barney Frank

Nothing in the world is as mobile as capital. It can move anywhere in the world instantaneously. — Barney Frank

I have been mislabeled as a big advocate of low-income home ownership over rental. — Barney Frank

I'm antisocial - there's no question about it. — Barney Frank

Increasing inequality in income distribution in this country has broader policy implications, and there is also the growing problem of perverse incentives that result from executives receiving grossly disproportionate compensation based on decisions they themselves take. — Barney Frank

It wasn't until after I was reelected in 1982 that I thought of myself as a long-term member of Congress. — Barney Frank

And I think there is too much bloviating around from politicians. — Barney Frank

Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there's no hierarchy. — Barney Frank

Excessive partisanship is the problem. There has never been a democracy in the history of the world in a polity of any size where you didn't have political parties. Even sometimes over the objections of the people who started it. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I am very proud of the role I played in getting legal equality for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and in helping get rid of the prejudice by being visible about it, helping to block the conviction of Bill Clinton of impeachment. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I am not a great theologian. I know there is a theological concept called invincible ignorance in which a strong enough faith binds you to any facts to the contrary. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

I have done a lot of work for affordable housing, rental housing. I understand the rap on me and other liberals is, oh, we push poor people into homeownership. And it's exactly the opposite of the case. We were trying to prevent those kinds of bad loans. — Barney Frank

Pat Moynihan could write books with one hand and legislate with the other. I can't; I have a short attention span. The slightest distraction would take me away from writing. — Barney Frank

There's only one thing you can do in bankruptcy: break your word, break your deals. It allows you to say to the small businesses, who have been catering lunches for you, 'Sorry, we're not paying you.' It allows you to go to the workers and say, 'Sorry, we're not paying you.' — Barney Frank

What's troubling is that the Republicans to defend Mr. DeLay are weakening the ethics process. — Barney Frank

Take free speech: most of the tough cases on free speech involve very unpleasant people saying very obnoxious things. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential. — Barney Frank

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. — Barney Frank

Now, most of the time I'm going to agree with the Democrats and disagree with the Republicans. — Barney Frank

Well, many of us believe that excessive media concentration is a subject that ought to be addressed, and it is, of course, the intention of the majority party not to allow that to be discussed. — Barney Frank

Ridicule is about the most powerful weapon possible. — Barney Frank