Haley Barbour: It’s about policy, not race

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said in an interview that rising opposition to President Obama’s free-spending policies has nothing to do with race, and dismissed rosy federal predictions that the recession is over as nothing more than “political happy talk.”

“All through my political career, when the Democrats are losing the argument, they try to make the issue race. The issue’s left and right, it’s not black and white,” the Republican governor said in an interview with editors and reporters Thursday at The Washington Times.

“This administration and this Congress have attempted the biggest lurch to the left of any administration in American history.”

Weighing in on the Democratic charge this week by former President Jimmy Carter and others that GOP opposition to Mr. Obama’s agenda is race-based, the head of the Republican Governors Association said thousands of health care reform opponents turned out for town halls and anti-tax “tea parties” across the country to voice their deep fear that the government is reaching too far, spending too much, and could end up hurting the programs they know and like, such as Medicare.

Mr. Barbour said he was happy to see the strong turnout at the protests.

“I think it’s healthy for people who have never done anything but vote to go out and ring the bell. Politicians need to hear that every now and then,” he said.

The governor maintained that the opposition isn’t personal to President Obama, whose election Mr. Barbour said was hailed by liberals and conservatives alike as a milestone in American racial relations.

“It’s not people don’t like the president, it’s not that they don’t want him to succeed. Now, there’s some people that don’t want him to succeed in passing bad policy, and I’m one of them, but his policies are far more unpopular. He is not unpopular,” he said.

“This is still a center-right country.”

Despite optimism this week from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who said the recession is “very likely over at this point,” Mr. Barbour said the pain is just beginning for the nation’s governors - and that it could last for years.

Noting that employment and state revenue “typically continue to decline 18 months after a recession ends,” Mr. Barbour said states that have already pared their budgets to the bone have nowhere else to cut with more hard times on the horizon. The big bill that Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul may present to the states would only add to the burden, he argued.

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