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.
I filed the first gay rights bill in Massachusetts history in 1972 in the legislature, one of the first in the country.
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.'
Television is apparently the enemy of nuance. But nuance is essential for a thoughtful discussion.
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.
I'm a good legislator. I'm a bad some other things.
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.Collection: Children
The best humor is offered up to you by the stupidity of your opponents.Collection: Stupidity
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.Collection: Two
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.Collection: Fire
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.Collection: Senior
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.Collection: Grateful
The best antidote to prejudice is reality.Collection: Reality
Regarding homophobia in general, the good news is that there is a lot less of it than there used to be. The bad news is that it ever existed in the first place, and the worse news is that it remains far stronger than is healthy for a society dedicated in theory to equality under the law.Collection: Equality Under The Law
These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis.Collection: Two
There are no moderate Republicans left, with the exception of a few who would vote with us when it doesn’t make any difference,” Frank said. “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.’Collection: War
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.Collection: Writing
Conservatives believe that from the standpoint of the federal government, life begins at conception and ends at birth.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Gay
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.Collection: Cheer
There is a correlation between people who attack same-sex marriage and have difficulty maintaining their own.Collection: Sex
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.Collection: Morning
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.Collection: Years
Serving in Congress is like having a second shot at high school.Collection: School
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.Collection: College
Ronald Reagan believes in the free market like some people believe in unicorns.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: People
Whenever people are being intellectually dishonest in debate, it is an implicit concession they have lost the fightCollection: Fighting
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.Collection: Ties
I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything?Collection: Believe
There is an irony that the most active anti-gay groups are Al-Qaeda and the American Right wing.Collection: Gay
Ridicule is about the most powerful weapon possible.Collection: Powerful
The problem with the war in Iraq is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.Collection: War
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.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Country
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.Collection: Country
Take free speech: most of the tough cases on free speech involve very unpleasant people saying very obnoxious things.Collection: People
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.Collection: People
[Democrats] are trying on every front to increase the role of government.Collection: Government
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.Collection: War
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.Collection: School
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.Collection: Gay
I do not believe that the federal government should treat adults who choose to smoke marijuana as criminals.Collection: Believe
I smoke a cigar or two a day. I did have a brownie once. It made me sleepy.Collection: Two
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.Collection: Depressing
Disruption never helps your cause. ... It just looks like you're afraid to have rational discussion.Collection: Looks
Nothing in the world is as mobile as capital. It can move anywhere in the world instantaneously.Collection: Moving
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.Collection: Army
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.Collection: Believe