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David Cay Johnston

250 quotes

“[I]n 1968... most journalists were blue collar intellectuals. Today the newsrooms of the major news organizations are full of people who grew up in wealthy households. So... their attitude... is "The world seems to be doing just fine. It's quite just." ...because that's their life's experience.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]e've had this tremendous weakening of the news media, so that [many] large federal agencies... have no beat reporters... covering them. We have city councils and school boards all across America that get no coverage... and this is terrific for those people who are getting rich by exploiting the rules of the system for their benefit; and you're not hearing about that.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]e have the highest percentage of children who go to bed hungry of any modern country. You wouldn't know from reading the news or watching TV that America has a hunger problem, that all across America we have communities, in the country, in the suburbs, in the city, where volunteers send home backpacks full of food for families on the weekend, because otherwise these kids would not eat.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's a big attack going on in this country on public education. One of the Koch brothers... publicly advocated ending public education, because that's socialism. ...[I]n Wisconsin we saw people call kindergarten teachers thugs. Something I would never have imagined when I was young... [I]t's because we've gone through a fundamental change. We've been living under Reaganism now since 1981, and in Reaganism we worship money, and our measure of the country is money.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The purposes of our country were written down for us in the Preamble of the Constitution, the justice, the general Welfare with a capital "W", common defense, domestic tranquility, liberties... Nothing in the Preamble talks about getting rich. That's a byproduct of these other things. But we have gotten a distorted view of what's happening, and we also... are now at the point where we have 33 years of evidence that Reaganism produces actually exactly what Ronald Reagan said in 1980, if you listen carefully... It's made the rich richer. Now it's doing it at the expense of the 90%.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are mining the 90% to benefit the super rich.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rather than building the economy for all of us, we are mining the bottom to benefit the top.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The number one driver of this is campaign finance. The reality is, if you or I got elected to Congress, we would have to spend our time dealing with wealthy people who want favors from the government. There are over 100,000 people in America who's job is to mine the public treasury, or the rules, for their benefit. ...So we've got to change campaign finance... in a way that this Supreme Court, with the radicals on it, can't knock down.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“John Adams... wrote that his fear... of what would destroy America was a business aristocracy would arise. Instead of people being yeomen farmers who owned their own land, or workers who owned their own tools... workers would be mere wage earners, and... not being truly independent, would vote for the policies that benefit the business aristocracy, and we would lose both our liberties and our democracy... a good indicator of what's going on right now.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Back in 1996 I was the principle reporter at The New York Times on a huge series... that changed the way executive pay was reported. We showed how the head of had gotten a $100 million pay one year and he only paid taxes on about $2 Million... [H]e had built a fortune of just shy of a billion dollars at that point, tax free... [T]here were members of the board of directors of Coke that did not understand how much money they had paid him.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you and I were young and a company laid people off, you would see the president, not the CEO... in those days, say "...I'm gonna work for a dollar a year" or "I'm going to take no bonuses until everybody is rehired." Today it's... "Ooh, I fired 10,000 people. I'll get a bigger bonus!”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are... seeing... failure to enforce the law. I have written for 15 years about a way that real estate in partnerships cheat. It's easy to spot but you have to do the work... The guy who figured it out was given all sorts of awards by the IRS. No one will do it. The governor of New York, who should be in the forefront... because it costs the state as much as $700 million in a peak year, refuses to do this, and... his administration has... literally lied, claiming repeatedly that they're looking for this, but there's no court case of any kind.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“George Will had a column in The Washington Post this week in which he said that the proof that the failed after 50 years was people trusted the government under LBJ and now they don't any more. ... [I] would argue... the facts show just the opposite. People don't trust the government anymore because they recognize it does not work in their interest, it works against their interest...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[B]ecause labor returns have gone down there's not enough ... to buy goods and services. ...The next thought should be ...capitalists will change because people have to buy their products. No, if your a global level capitalist, it doesn't matter. As long as there aren't riots in the streets, you can sell your goods in other countries.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While at my last paper, I won a for exposing so many tax dodges and loopholes that a prominent tax lawyer called me the "de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In 1990, I broke the story that, instead of being worth billions, as he'd claimed, Trump actually had a negative and escaped a chaotic collapse into personal bankruptcy only when the government took his side over the banks...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I... watched Trump run briefly in 2000 for the nomination of the Reform Party... during that brief campaign Trump declared he would become the first person to run for president and make a profit. ...For the 2016 run, a large share of Trump's campaign money was spent paying himself for the use of his Boeing 757... in addition to his smaller jet, his helicopter, his Trump Tower office space, and other services supplied by Trump businesses.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump doesn't know anything. ...Trump's own words and conduct ...and his comments on many issues ...show how appallingly ignorant he is.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[H]e does not have a clue about the Constitution's system of checks and balances.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump never faced tough questions as a candidate where he could not walk away or give nonsense answers without repeated follow-up. This is a serious problem for the future of American democracy in the television era, when appearances matter more than reality.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He appointed as chief executive of his campaign, and, later, White House strategy chief, Steve Bannon, a known anti-Semite who, in his time at Network, published racist articles and bizarre conspiracy theories...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For five months, Trump's campaign manager was Paul Manafort, advisor to dictators and near dictators including a pro-Moscow regime in Ukraine that was ousted by a popular uprising.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hiring of Manafort and others, specifically , a Russian-born real estate mogul with mob ties whose 2015 emails indicate that he hoped to help secure both a Moscow-based real estate deal and the American presidency for Trump—showed a disturbing pattern of associations with those around Vladimir Putin, head of the in Moscow...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump applauded Putin throughout the campaign... [which] paralleled the language... of mob soldiers speaking about their bosses.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump has worked hard to make sure few... know about his lifelong entanglements with a major cocaine trafficker [Joseph Weichselbaum].., with American and Russian mobsters and many mob associates, and with various con artists and swindlers.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: See also: David Cay Johnston, Just what were Donald Trump’s ties to the mob? Politico (May 22, 2016)
“[C]rowds of young people... filled the Trump Tower auditorium in June 2015, interrupting with applause forty-three times as Trump announced his campaign with vicious s of Mexicans, Muslims, and the media. ...A day later news broke that the crowd was not ...voluntary ...Many ...were actors paid fifty bucks apiece. ...[S]uch dishonesty continues a pattern that traces back throughout the life and career of Donald Trump.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Business owners who are prudent about making promises and are known for honoring their word often go through life without a single lawsuit. Trump has been a party in more than 4,000 lawsuits, some of them accusing him of civil fraud...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump has... been sued thousands of times for refusing to pay employees, vendors and others. Investors have sued him for fraud in a number of different cities. But among Trump’s most highly refined skills is his ability to deflect or shut down investigations. He also uses threats of litigation to deter news organizations from looking behind the curtains of the seemingly all-wise and all-powerful man they often refer to as The Donald.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our democracy is in very deep trouble. ...Donald Trump is not the disease. He is the symptom.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]f we're going to fix this, and if we're going to get this manifestly unqualified criminal out of the White House, we have to do some work. We've got to diagnose the real underlying problem.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Americans have a pretty good idea of the chaos and the palace intrigues in the Trump White House. Journalists are actually doing a much better job of covering what's going on in the White House than I anticipated, partly because, even though Donald Trump is all about loyalty to Donald, there are all sorts of people eager to leak, who are in there not as close allies... and who want to position themselves for the future with journalists.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But that's not what... effects your lives, your children's lives [etc.]... It is important that we understand what the Trump administration is doing. ...[I]t's not Donald personally doing this. Donald's a lazy guy. He works about 4 hours a day. ...[H]e spends one third of his time at his properties. It's the people he brought in.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Steve Bannon put it best. Steve Bannon said "I'm a Lennonist" that is, I'm someone who wants to destroy the existing order. Many of these people, although they... wouldn't put in these terms, hate the United States of America. ...They hate the fact that there are people of color... that there are people of a different religion in this country, that there are people who are not interested in worshiping the rich and trying to get rich, and certainly don't want to be taxed to subsidize the rich.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Donald Trump has been involved with the Russians back to 1983. He has worked very hard to suppress a lawsuit about a quarter billion dollar tax fraud which he authorized. ...DCReport.org, the nonprofit news service that my friends and I started ...is in court trying to get access to some of the documents in this case that have been sealed, because Trump has been incredibly successful in hiding the record of his conduct.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So when Trump came to the White House, the people he brought with him, Michael Flynn... Steve Bannon, [etc.] brought with them this team... Team Trump... [I]n the federal agencies, it's not just the incompetent, unqualified, anti-(to their oath of office) cabinet secretaries who matter. It's not just Scott Pruitt, who wants to destroy the EPA and Betsy DeVos whose completely unqualified. It's the people that came with them... political termites... loosed into the structure of our government, and they are damaging our government.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I asked the federal government under an agency Trump just took control of, the (which has recovered multiples of its budget) for a copy of a receipt... evidence that a huge fine, supposedly paid by one of the banks was actually paid. ...[T]hey said... "You'll have to file a Freedom of Information Act request. This is the kind of administration we have.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That hotel... in Trump organization filings had predicted would lose money in its first year, is making money hand over fist. ...They're taking in at the bar, $68,000 a night. ...If you want something from the Trump administration, what he made clear, is "You will pay me tribute." You'll sign up to join , where he doubled the admission price.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]hese appointees that they put in place... are totally unqualified, and in many cases, enemies of the agencies they represent. Donald Trump's administration is turning America into what the ancient Greeks called a . ...[A] government of the worst people, the most venal, unqualified criminal elements around. The worst people. ...These are people who when they get called to testify, give answers that make it clear, they have no business being the manager of the little town I live in... much less running a cabinet agency.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This book tells you what has either not been in the news or [has] been in it glancingly, about what they're doing to our government; and that effects your safety, your income, your future.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Donald Trump came into office and killed the . ...[T]hat partnership had serious flaws. It was written in secret, by corporate lobbyists and by lawyers involved in the trade business. It was so secretive that when my congresswoman, , having seen what I wrote, wanted to read what was in there... she said "Yea, it's all written... in language that doesn't mean anything to me," and Louise has a PhD in microbiology. ...It's written in the language of people in the trade, not to be understood by mere mortals.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We needed to fix the TPP, but Donald killed it, and did nothing to replace it. ...That creates a vacuum, and into that vacuum stepped president Xi. The RCEP is the led by Beijing. It's 15 countries (not us, just as TPP didn't include China)... plus India. ...[W]hen I was in Australia... I was astonished... They were all saying that Australia is going to have to reorient its trade policies towards Beijing, because there is no American leadership.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[O]ne of the purposes of the was to contain China. ...China is very expansionist. ...[T]hey're building in the Spratly Islands these artificial islands and saying "You can't fly airplanes over here or run ships through here, especially not military ships." China believes that it's the country of the future, and if you drive on their highways... they put the Autobahn to shame, which puts our Interstates to shame... They are... like the Catholic Church in terms of their thinking, "We're here forever.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is Trump doing? Nothing. Japan signs a trade deal with the European Union last summer in Brussels. Donald Trump is 800 miles to the east in Poland. He's giving a speech where he talks about "Everyone adored me..." (That's because the right-wing government of Poland used police to make sure that only Trump supporters... got in, that protestors were kept blocks away...) So while this important trade deal is going down, where's Donald Trump? ...[Y]ou put Japan together with Europe, and the RCEP, and this is not good for our future. This is very, very bad for our future.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Donald has a degree on his office [wall] from Penn, an ivy league school in economics []. He was given that degree, and I emphasize the verb "given" because he always said "Mexico is going to pay for the wall." ...[A]ll thinking people went "How are you going to make a sovereign nation pay for a wall they don't want?" "I have a plan!" Do you know what his plan was when he came into office? "I'm going to put a tariff on Mexican goods." It's a guy with an economics degree who doesn't know that a tariff... means we pay for the wall through higher prices? The man doesn't know anything.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He appoints as his commerce secretary one of leading s in America, Wilbur Ross, whose specialty is seizing a company that's run out of cash, recapitalizing it. You don't pay the bills you owe... (something that Donald Trump never heard of). You borrow new money (something Donald Trump certainly has heard of) then you squeeze the borrowed money out and put it in your own pocket, and you turn the zombie [company] loose until it dies.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wilbur Ross goes with Donald Trump to , where Donald Trump praises the Saudis for leading the fight against terrorism. You know who the biggest funders of terrorism in the world are? He attacks ... an ally of the US that allows us to have our most important military base there. ...Wilbur Ross comes back from this trip, he goes on CNBC and he says, "...The Saudi people love us. ...There wasn't a single demonstrator, anywhere..." and Becky Quick ...says "...It's against the law to protest there. They arrest people. They whip them"...”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The way that the Trump administration is cutting regulations... It's just "Go ahead and pollute. Take the toxic residue from burning coal, and instead of drying it out and putting it in a place where it's unlikely to cause harm, continue to put it into slurries and then toxic ponds next to rivers where we get drinking water." That's not benefiting us. That's simply jacking up the profits of these companies, which by the way, get paid rates under rate regulation, to pay for these costs of cleaning up their mess.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let's go to the student loan industry. ...What is the Trump administration doing? "We're going to address the student loan problem." So brings in... executives from the companies that made the student loans. ...This is building a new hen house designed by the fox!”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Donald Trump is never going to resign... [H]is ego is never going to let him resign. He will not be moved against by the Republicans... They've made their bed with him. They're excusing everything he does.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have this vague recollection of Republican leaders talking about their concerns about immorality, especially women and wanting to make sure we can't have access to things like birth control... and talking about family values. So out comes the Wall Street Journal on the playmate of the year who got paid $150 grand to not talk, and now the porn star and, trust me, to quote Donald, "Believe me..." there's more like this out there. Where are the moralists about Donald Trump's behavior? ...His conduct is outrageous.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source