120 Quotes by John Sununu

We'll always have bureaucracies, but bureaucracies led by bureaucrats might be too much of a bad thing.

You walk into any supermarket or any shopping mall and ask the public what they are worried about. Not one of them will tell you they are worried about 12 years of Mitt Romney’s tax returns.

For most Americans, Friday afternoons are filled with positive anticipation of the weekend. In Washington, it’s where government officials dump stories they want to bury. Good news gets dropped on Monday so bureaucrats can talk about it all week.

Barack Obama’s life was so much simpler in 2009. Back then, he had refined the cold act of blaming others for the bad economy into an art form. Deficits? Blame Bush’s tax cuts. Spending? Blame the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No business investment? Blame Wall Street.

Political pandering comes in all shapes and sizes, but every four years the presidential primary bring us in contact with its purest form – praising ethanol subsidies amid the corn fields of Iowa.

The constant need for special waivers is symptomatic of poorly written public policy. It’s a signal that the cost of compliance is unreasonably high; the benefits are hard to measure; and either legislators or regulators have failed to do their homework.

Politicians also have a love affair with the ‘small business exemption.’ Too much paperwork? Too heavy a burden? Not enough time? Just exempt small businesses from the rule. It sounds so pro-growth. Instead it’s an admission that the costs of a regulation just can’t be justified.

Don’t let that weapon technology proliferate. Don’t let Saddam Hussein get capability for nuclear or chemical weapons, because he’s already shown a willingness to use any weapon at his disposal.

The principal role of the President of the United States is the security of the country and participating in trying to stabilize the world.