Joe Barton

Joseph Linus "Joe" Barton (born September 15, 1949) is a Republican politician, representing Texas's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1985.

Sourced

• As long as I am chairman, [regulating global warming pollution] is off the table indefinitely. I don't want there to be any uncertainty about that.
  • Congressional hearing entitled, "National Energy Policy: Coal" Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality (March 14, 2001) [1]

• I appreciate that in China, people are hungry to prosper in the global economy. What they need is a body of elected representatives who will widely debate and freely pass a strong national energy policy. Selling China an oil company will only take pressure off its rulers and further delay the arrival of democracy.
  • "Why sell company to China?". USA Today. 2005-07-11. 

• Medicaid is a study in contradiction. Thanks to it, America's neediest get health care paid for by taxpayers. Often they get better health care than taxpayers can afford for themselves. The program is both 'free' and break-the-bank expensive. It lets poor people look rich and rich people look poor, and it rewards lawyers and druggists with real wealth. Medicaid works so well it's going broke.
  • "Save Medicaid from itself". The Washington Times. 2005-10-31. 

• I am just thinking how unfair it is of you to quote their own words. It is a low blow to use what ExxonMobil has actually said against them. I mean, that is kind of a cheap shot, don't you think?
  • Committee on Energy of Commerce Hearing: Gasoline: Supply, Price, and Specifications, May 10, 2006
  • to Representative Anna Eshoo, on her citing ExxonMobil officials saying they don't want to build any new refineries in North America

• I cannot imagine any objective finding that CO₂ is a pollutant. If that's true, God is a polluter.
  • Congress and global warming. Reprint of article by Greenwire (2006-08-02). Retrieved on 2006-08-07.

• Global warming science is uneven and evolving.
  • Republicans frosty on Gore's global warming warnings. CNN (2007-03-21). Retrieved on 2007-03-21.

• I'm speaking totally for myself and I'm not speaking for the Republican Party and I'm not speaking for anybody in the House of Representatives but myself, but I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it's a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown.
• I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure, that is again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize.
  • "Republicans protecting ‘poor,’ persecuted BP". Ironton Tribune. 2010-06-18. 
  • Kate Galbraith (2010-06-17). "Texas Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes to BP Chief". The Texas Tribune. 
  • in House hearing on Deepwater Horizon oil spill, regarding escrow fund to pay oil spill claims, 2010-06-17