Barney Frank quotes

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)
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Barney Frank
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. View quote
Barney Frank
People are entitled to the presumption of innocence. View quote
Barney Frank
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. View quote
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. View quote
Barney Frank
In a free society a large degree of human activity is none of the government's business. We should make criminal what's going to hurt other people and other than that we should leave it to people to make their own choices. View quote
Barney Frank
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. View quote
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)
There are no moderate Republicans left, with the exception of a few who would vote with us when it doesn't make any difference. It's the most rigid ideological party since before the Civil War. [...] The bumper sticker I'm going to have printed up for Democrats this year is, "We're not perfect, but they're nuts." View quote
Barney Frank
Questioner: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy as Obama has expressly supported this policy? Why are you supporting it? Frank: When you ask me that question I am gonna revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time? [...] As you stand there with a picture of the President defaced to look like Hitler, and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table: I have no interest in doing it. View quote
Barney Frank
There are a lot of ways to mispronounce my name. That is the least common [...] I checked with my mother. In 50 years no one's ever called her "Elsie Fag". View quote
Barney Frank
It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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)
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. View quote
Barney Frank
What's troubling is that the Republicans to defend Mr. DeLay are weakening the ethics process. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Barney Frank