# Joe Barton

Joseph Linus "Joe" Barton (born September 15, 1949) is an American politician who represented Texas's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2019. The district included Arlington, part of Fort Worth, and several small towns and rural areas south of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. He was also a member of the Tea Party Caucus. In 2014, Barton became the longest-serving member of the Texas congressional delegation.

## Quotes

* 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)
* 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 CO$_2$ 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.
* 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.
** House of Representative Subcommittee on Energy and Environment Hearing on "Renewable Energy: Complementary Policies for Climate Legislation", 2009-02-26, quoted in Steve Benen (2009-09-18). Joe Barton, Environmental Visionary. The Washington Monthly. Retrieved on 2014-12-15.
* 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