John Barrasso Quotes

Our nation is too different, too diverse to say that what works in Massachusetts is somehow going to be grabbed by the federal government, usurping the power of states and imposing a one-size-fits-all plan on the nation. That will not work.

What can we do to put more Colorado in Washington and less Washington in Colorado?

We have to allow people in the states to make their own decisions, to get government agencies out of the way and let local people make decisions about what's best for them.

What is good for Alaska is good for the country. Transferring power from the federal government to the states provides opportunity to all states, not just Alaska.

Texans can run Texas without the federal government telling them what to do.

States should have enormous input into the decisions that affect them.

Many states have legalized medicinal marijuana. I believe the president and the Department of Justice ought to respect the will of these separate states... We are capable of self-government. We don't need some federal gendarme to come and tell us what to do. I believe comity toward the states...ought to govern the policy.

I think that the more we, as a state, yield and cede decisions to the federal government, the lesser we'll be for it as a state.

I don't think the federal government should be a part of everything. I think that governing should be done state-by-state... so that you can tailor your governing to the people's needs.

I'm pro-life but I believe that the federal government ought to stay out of it. That's a decision that the people of each state ought to make for themselves.

I think he should let me run Ohio. He should let us, the legislature, the members there, we should be running Ohio. The states are the laboratories out here, and I think the president needs to mind to the problems that he has in Washington.

I would support a devolution of power out of Washington for education, health care, transportation.

The proposed system [of American government] is like the solar system, in which the states are the planets, and they ought to be left to move more freely in their proper orbits.

Our best protection against bigger government in Washington is better government in the states.

I think that the terms of the Affordable Care Act do give the states a fair amount of wiggle room and to do things as they see fit. The Affordable Care Act was not designed as some sort of one-size-fits-all solution from Washington. There's lots of discretion given to the states.

In my eight years as governor, I did everything I could to resist federal control of issues that belong to the states.

I do believe that power needs to be returned to the states. I think that we've got way too much power in Washington. This is where I'm focused: way too much power in Washington.

Fellow conservatives, particularly within the Republican Party, typically do a good job arguing against totalitarian, one-size-fits-all approaches to policy. What works for a family in New York City might not work in Jenison, Michigan, or Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We don't need unelected federal agency bureaucrats in Washington telling our states what they can and can't do with respect to protecting their limited taxpayer dollars in private enterprises.

I resent Washington telling states, or the residents of those states, what to do and what to think.

I'm a strong supporter of states' rights to do what they need.

I often say that Arizonans should decide what's best for Arizona.

The federal government should stay out of it.

There is a tension between the flexibility we give states and the accountability we require from states.

I am going to make Washington as irrelevant to your lives as possible