Haley Barbour Quotations

I think the American people are very smart in understanding our country is very trustworthy with nuclear weapons. We've had them from the beginning. But they have also been critical for keeping the world more at peace than it would have been if it hadn't been for the American nuclear umbrella.

I'm a lobbyist and had a career lobbying. The guy who gets elected or the lady who gets elected president of the United States will immediately be lobbying. They would be advocating to the Congress, they'll be lobbying our allies and our adversaries overseas. They'll be asking the business community and labor unions.

When I became governor, spending actually increased 28 percent my first term. Revenue increased 42 percent my first term without raising anybody's taxes. We did it because we had more taxpayers with more taxable income. That's how you get the revenue up. We did that without raising anybody's taxes.

I have a record as governor. I have a record of cutting spending. And I talked yesterday not only about we ought to cut spending, I talked about how we've cut spending in Mississippi and how if you did the same things in the federal government, you would save tens of billions of dollars a year.

The Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have taken the biggest lurch to the left in policy in American history. There've been no - no Congress, no administration that has run this far to the left in such a small period of time. And there is a reaction to that.

Big business has no party and never shall have.

I'm floored that the House leadership would turn its back on job creation for Mississippians.

The decision is 'trust fund' versus 'no more Medicaid' - and that shouldn't be a tough decision.

There's no recovery on Main Street, I can tell you that for sure. And in a re - in an economy like this, we don't need to be raising anybody's taxes.

Most Americans are more concerned about the economy and job creation. And they can't understand why the Obama administration or the Democrat majority in Congress wants to pass a bill like the cap-and-trade tax that will cost us jobs, that will hurt our economy, that will drive up costs for families, as well as for small businesses.

We've actually got utility crews in from Canada.

We know we've had some loss of life. We really don't know how much. There are credible accounts of 50 to 80 in Harrison County. Those are not confirmed, but they're credible,

We've turned a corner. We're well into the cleanup phase now. We're focusing on the future for the state of Mississippi.

The fact is the storm overwhelmed all of the system, ... Now, we're little by little trying to get back. We've turned some corners, but we've got a lot of corners left to turn.

We've suffered a grievous blow that we won't recover from for a long while.

Many will see the vote on shore-based gaming as the first defining vote of where Mississippi is headed, ... Will it be business as usual; the same old, same old? Or are we going to lift our horizons and take advantage of this opportunity to have something better?

Six thousand homes were destroyed in Camille, ... I suspect it's going to be higher.

Mississippi Rising is going to be a tremendous boost not just in providing desperately needed funds for our recovery effort, but also in bringing national attention to our efforts as we transition from emergency relief to rebuilding Mississippi stronger, bigger and better.

Obviously, we regret the base closure commission's decision about Pascagoula, but it's no surprise. As we said when Pascagoula was first put on the list, all the naval vessels at Pascagoula either have been or are scheduled for decommissioning, and it's hard for the defense department to keep a naval base that doesn't have any ships.

I don't know ANYTHING about Louisiana... but we're doing great here!

I don't have to tell any of you we've been struck a grievous blow,

I don't know that the reports, per se, have changed much conduct.

I hate to say it, but my term as governor lasts for 2 1/2 more years, and for 2 1/2 more years I'm going to be standing in front of you saying: Be patient, ... Life as usual in Mississippi is not something we're going to recover for a long time?. That's just a fact.

If I said something like that, I would be pilloried. There is a line somewhere. Are the newspapers of the world just going to shrug it off when he says something like that?

I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago.

Fred may be right, and I may not have heard it, ... I do not recall his saying that.

I don't think you've seen anything like this, ... We're talking nuclear devastation.

For those people, we are working very hard that if they don't have insurance or if they don't have coverage, that we can come up with a way to help them financially, help to make them whole,

Today, I saw reporters cry, ... And mayors. And deputy sheriffs.

We're preparing for the worst and praying for the best,

What we want to avoid are gigantic trailer parks, for lack of a better word,

There are structures after structures that survived Camille with minor damage that are not there any more.

It came in on Mississippi like a ton of bricks. It's a terrible storm.

I will say, sometimes I'm scared, too, ... But we are going to hitch up our britches. We're going to get this done.

Some people believe state government is being run so efficiently that no money can be saved. I am not one of those people.

Some people are trapped in their homes, but we can't rescue them until the winds die down.

Local people have to make the decision, ... The purpose of this commission is not to impose decisions on you. It's to illuminate the choices.

like there'd been a nuclear weapon set off.

I worry that we had a little hurricane fatigue, ... People boarded up for Ivan, evacuated and nothing happened. Then they boarded up for Dennis, evacuated and nothing happened. I think until very, very late, a lot of people thought, 'Ah, I'm not going to do that again.'

We do need the federal government's help. We need them to be a good partner, but we don't need a takeover,

We will rebuild bigger and better than ever. It's going to take some time, and people have to be patient.

We know that there is a lot of the coast that we have not been able to get to, ... I hate to say it, but it looks like it is a very bad disaster in terms of human life.

We believe the damage in Mississippi the federal government should help pay for is less than $50 billion, ... It may even be in the 30s.

We haven't looked at it as, I'm going to be whiny, and I'll get more, or, I'm going to act like Tarzan, and I'll get more. We've been saying, what do you need to do to get the job done?

Those are the kinds of things that will be discussed,

We know some people got trapped and we pray they are OK.

We have learned the hard way that making them float on water is not a good idea.

There is incredible evidence that the casualties are more than 50, maybe 80, ... and it seems likely that that's not the end of it. It may be higher, maybe substantially.

This storm is going to have a statewide effect. This is not a coastal storm, ... we are talking about a 30 foot wall of water. Take this seriously.

We don't know how many fatalities there are. The official count is really meaningless.

we don't need them coming in and running things.

We will fail if we don't allow the casinos to come on shore.

We got hit by the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

To that end I am proposing an agenda that can be summed up by three words: Momentum, UpGrade and Streamline. We must continue our Momentum in job creation and economic growth, UpGrade education in this tough budget period and Streamline that budget back into structural balance.

While it took a long time, the Legislature has passed the essential parts of the special session agenda, ... We will put those into effect immediately.

Those people on the coast ... I'm begging you to evacuate,

We want to get people back to work,

Weight is something with which many of us struggle, including me, so I have a special appreciation for the educational, physical and emotional value of diet, exercise and other elements of healthier living.

We're going to be fine at the end of the day, ... but the end of the day's a long way away.

We're very hopeful that some really good ideas will be put forward,

To me looting is about the equivalent of grave robbing, ... We're not going to stand for it.

Before I was chairman they were generous donors, and they were while I was chairman.

Even though personally he is not in favor of gaming, he let the House work its will. He deserves credit and no one else,

Between the beach and the railroad, ... every house is just gone, ... Ninety percent of the structures are totally just gone. Debris (is) knee deep, waist deep, hip deep.

Eliminating the federal share of CPB funding would free up $400 million this year, ... That is enough money to build 40 elementary schools.

There's not every thing I would put in there, but I think it is a very good bill that will make the structures much more secure,

I urge all Mississippians to please take this storm seriously. Now is the time to prepare yourself, your family and your friends.

I urge all Mississippians to please take this storm seriously, ... Now is the time to prepare yourself, your family and your friends.

The state today has suffered a grievous blow, and we're not through,

The state has suffered a grievous blow on the coast,

After Camille in 1969, another opportunity was lost,

That's why they got chocolate and vanilla, Wolf,

that the federal government understands that it has a major commitment here. It's going to be required to support financially what we do, particularly in areas of public infrastructure.

This is a small solution, ... We are going to look at base camps and modular cities, if you will. But I just want to say to you we are not where we need to be on temporary housing.

This is not just a coast calamity. All the way up in the state, there's terrific damage,

This bill is about more than gaming, ... By signing this bill, the state is taking the necessary precautions to provide safety for the casinos and, in turn, is providing jobs for thousands of displaced Mississippi workers.

And I hate to say it, I think there are going to be more.

There will be more of those. As I've said to you before our goal is 10,000 by the end of the month, and we're working hard at that.

This is the worst natural disaster in the history of this country. Nobody's ever done this before. Every day we try to make a little progress. We are going to make mistakes along the way, realize things we should have done, things we shouldn't have done and things we should have done differently. We are out there in uncharted water.

They're not severely damaged. They're simply not there, ... We would see 10- and 20-block areas where there was nothing. Not one house standing. There were so many places where a home had been and there was nothing left but slab. It looked like it had been swept off with a broom.

absolutely and entirely consistent with what I campaigned on.

The most critical thing is what the private sector does, ... Our people need jobs.

It's no secret that Mississippi's image around the country and around the world is not as good as it ought to be, ... One of the things that helps our image is any time visitors come and see Mississippi and meet Mississippians. This casino industry brings millions of people here. Those people like what they see. They like the people that they meet.

For him to say that is the equivalent of me saying Ronnie Musgrove helped hook our kids on crystal methamphetamine because he didn't oppose a 40-percent cut in the state Bureau of Narcotics drug enforcement budget,

It looks like Hiroshima is what it looks like,

Creating a renaissance in this area is what I'm working on for the rest of the time I'm governor,

That's the attorney general's job, and I try to do my job.

It's beyond imagination. I never thought I'd see something that looks worse than Camille, but this looks worse than Camille.

It will be unsafe to return to the coastal area for several days. Be patient. Don't be in a hurry to go back.

They are unconfirmed but likely are accurate and likelier to go up when we take in the other counties,

There was a part in there that people could have taken the impression that we in Mississippi need the federal government to come in and take over what we're doing, that we need some kind of czar to tell us how to run Mississippi. We don't need that, ... Larry King Live.

These transit and infrastructure issues are real, and now we have a chance to come at them from different ways.

I want to talk to the speaker and the lieutenant governor,

The federal government is not prioritizing; they're throwing everything they've got at it, ... They've even deployed the Navy, the first time in our nation's history it's been used for a natural disaster. They are pushing everything in here possible from thousands of National Guard troops to temporary living quarters to the best scientists and epidemiologists. This will be the biggest relief effort, the largest humanitarian effort in the history of the world.

the federal government has been good partners to us.

I'm going to tell you, Mississippi got hit much harder than they did, but what happened in the aftermath ? it makes your stomach hurt to go miles and miles and miles and the houses are all under water up to the roof,

I'm extremely proud of how our National Guard has responded to these hurricane-support efforts. I've seen them in action on the coast, and they're doing everything possible to help protect lives and property throughout the state.

I'm pleased that the Legislature saw fit to do that. I know it was a tough decision, but I think they made the right decision,

I'm for prosecuting them to the nth degree, ... This to me is like grave robbing, and we just can't tolerate it.

If we want world-class resorts that will be about much more than just gaming, ... if we want to build the Coast bigger and better than ever before, I believe we will fail if we don't allow the casinos to come on shore, even if only a few hundred feet.