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In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.

The reality is that politicians, in terms of the amount of power they wield and the amount that they work, don't actually make that much money.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

It is economic power that determines political power, and governments become the political functionaries of economic power.

We have become bound by a political straitjacket that frames every debate: Too much federal government. Yet our forefathers forged this system for us. The federal government can accomplish what the states, acting alone or even in concert, cannot.

A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.

The greatest power is not money power, but political power.

Big government inevitably drives an upward distribution of wealth to those whose wealth, confidence and sophistication enable them to manipulate government.

I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.