Joe Barton Quotes

Joe Linus Barton is a Republican politician representing Texas's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1985, and a member of the Tea Party Caucus. The district includes Arlington, part of Fort Worth, and several small towns and rural areas south of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. In 2014, Barton became the longest-serving member of the Texas congressional delegation.Barton describes himself as "a constant defender of conservative ideals and values". He advocates for deregulation of the electricity and natural gas industries, and serves as vice-chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committees. He is skeptical that manmade carbon emissions have contributed to global warming, is a proponent of the use of fossil fuels, voted in favor of the May 2017 GOP plan to replace Obamacare, supports President Donald Trump's ban on immigration from certain predominantly Muslim nations, and supports the death penalty for persons caught spying. Barton led a successful effort to repeal the oil export ban in the House in 2017. His environmental record of defending industries against tighter pollution controls earned him the nickname "Smokey Joe."Barton came to national prominence after telling a citizen at a town hall meeting to "shut up." He came to national attention again when nude selfie photos of him – taken from video he had taken of himself masturbating, that he had shared with women – surfaced online in 2017, along with messages with sexual overtones that he had sent to a female constituent while he was married. In November 2017, Barton announced that he will retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and will not seek re-election in 2018.

✵ 15. September 1949
Joe Barton photo
Joe Barton: 9   quotes 0   likes

Famous Joe Barton Quotes

“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.”

Context: 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.

“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) http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=71503.wais&directory=/diskc/wais/data/107_house_hearings

“Wouldn't it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up?”

House of Representative Subcommittee on Energy and Environment Hearing on " Renewable Energy: Complementary Policies for Climate Legislation https://web.archive.org/web/20090325151942/http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090226/transcript_20090226_ee.pdf", , quoted in
Context: Wind is God's way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it's hotter to areas where it's cooler. That's what wind is. Wouldn't it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I'm not saying that's going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can't transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It's just something to think about.

“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, 2006-08-07 http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/8/2/134832/8334,

“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, http://www.irontontribune.com/2010/06/18/republicans-protecting-poor-persecuted-bp/]
[Texas Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes to BP Chief, Kate Galbraith, The Texas Tribune, http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/oil-and-natural-gas/texas-rep-joe-barton-apologizes-to-bp-chief/]
in House hearing on Deepwater Horizon oil spill, regarding escrow fund to pay oil spill claims,

“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 https://house.resource.org/109/org.c-span.192444-1.pdf, 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

“Global warming science is uneven and evolving.”

Republicans frosty on Gore's global warming warnings, CNN, 2007-03-21 http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/21/gore.ap/index.html,

Similar authors

John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy 469
35th president of the United States of America
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt 190
32nd President of the United States
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower 173
American general and politician, 34th president of the Unit…
Arthur Miller photo
Arthur Miller 147
playwright from the United States
George S. Patton photo
George S. Patton 77
United States Army general
Donald J. Trump photo
Donald J. Trump 904
45th President of the United States of America
Eleanor Roosevelt photo
Eleanor Roosevelt 148
American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady…
Ben Carson photo
Ben Carson 191
17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urb…
Ronald Reagan photo
Ronald Reagan 264
American politician, 40th president of the United States (i…
Winston S. Churchill photo
Winston S. Churchill 601
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom