August 29, 2012 DAVID GREGORY INTERVIEWS FMR. GOV. HALEY BARBOUR MEET THE PRESS “PRESS PASS” VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT
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TAMPA, Fla. – August 29, 2012 -- In today’s “Meet the Press” PRESS Pass conversation live from the site of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, David Gregory sat down with former RNC chair and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

Barbour thinks VP nominee Rep. Paul Ryan's keynote address tonight will shy away from partisan messaging, predicting it will have "much less red meat than you might normally put in there because I think they want to make the point... this is a serious election and the American people deserve somebody who's willing to lead, even when it isn't easy."

Barbour, a man who has planned his own Republican convention (1996), said there's one major thing he's looking for to come out of the convention: he wants "the American people to come out of here knowing the challenger much, much better."

A full transcript is below and embeddable video of the complete interview is online here: http://nbcnews.to/Oracv0

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Full Transcript: PRESS Pass: Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
Mandatory Credit: NBC News


DAVID GREGORY:
I'm David Gregory in Tampa at the Republican convention and this is PRESS Pass, your all-access pass to an extra Meet the Press conversation. And joining me today, Haley Barbour, a man with unique experience given the news of the day; first as a former governor, of course, of Mississippi – a state that’s had to deal with severe weather and hurricanes -- and of course he is former Chairman of the Republican Party as well. Governor, always good to talk to you.

HALEY BARBOUR:
Thank you.

DAVID GREGORY:
Let's talk about the task at hand: Paul Ryan. The vice presidential speech at a convention is important for firing up the base, firing up the crowd -- you think about Sarah Palin four years ago. What do you think the Ryan effect can and should be tonight?

HALEY BARBOUR:
It's very positive. But this is an unusual pick, in my opinion. I was very pleased and proud of the pick, because it showed Romney wasn't going to play it safe. That he picked somebody that could be a great partner in governing, somebody who is thoughtful, bright, bright -- but has got a bias for action. He doesn't just identify problems; he says, ‘If we know we got problems, we owe it to the American people to propose solutions.’ And I think he'll talk like that tonight. I think that's the Paul Ryan they'll see; much less red meat than you might normally put in there, because I think they want to make the point, as was made often last night: This is a serious election and the American people deserve somebody who's willing to lead, even when it isn't easy, even when it isn't popular. And I bet you -- I haven't talked to him about the speech, that's kind of what I'm expecting.

DAVID GREGORY:
He seems to represent where the Republican party is, and is certainly going, even more than Mitt Romney does, which is in part behind the pick. Maybe that puts you in a delicate spot to answer that question straight up. But I expect a lot of that reaction tonight too.

HALEY BARBOUR:
You know, David, I'll be 65 in October, and I've been around this party a long, long time. We made the generational shift 12 years after the Democrats. They nominated Dukakis in 1988; we nominated George W. Bush in 2000. We had World War II veterans until 2000. And you're seeing that here. You're seeing all these young, smart, attractive, articulate people who are pushing guys like me out. And I don't mean throwing me out. I mean succeeding. Chris Christie, Susana Martinez, Brian Sandoval, Nikki Haley. Paul Ryan's a great, great example of that.

DAVID GREGORY:
The party is changing. I guess the question is, in the course of that transition does it have real appeal in the middle of the electorate?

HALEY BARBOUR:
I think the answer's clearly yes. And particularly in this election, because the middle of the electorate thinks the Obama administration's been a failure.

DAVID GREGORY:
So it's debt, it's role of government, it's size of government. You think all of those will have real impacts?

HALEY BARBOUR:
Taxes, spending. But more importantly, the American people see that Obama's policies have made the economy worse. They've made it harder to create jobs. They're going to make healthcare cost more and you're going to get less. That is the big part; it's not just bad policy but bad policy with bad results which, to most people in the middle, that result was predictable. If you tell some potential employer, ‘Hey, we're going to hit you with the biggest tax increase in American history,’ how do you expect them to say, ‘Well good. I'm going to go out and hire a bunch of people.’ He says, ‘Oh, I better hold onto my money, I might have to pay a bunch of taxes.’ If he doesn't know what his costs or obligations are going to be for healthcare for his employees, how does he got out and hire more employees? The American people are a lot smarter than politicians give them credit for.

DAVID GREGORY:
But, Governor, you talk about serious times, serious problems. And we know that politics is a lot about campaigning in poetry and you govern in prose. And conventions on both sides can be brass-knuckle affairs. So the whole theme last night about ‘we built it, government doesn't play a role,’ and then you learn about even some of the speakers last night, small business people, benefitted from a small business administration loan. Isn't the reality that there is a balance? That government does have a role? And it's the balanced approach that has to be arrived at? Doesn't this overstate the case for getting government out of the way?

HALEY BARBOUR:
I don't think there's anybody here that wants no government. But we want rational regulation, not no regulation. The problem we've got with Obama regulations is bad regulations. And just look at 500 and something regulators are over at J.P. Morgan Chase, when they have the problem that they've been so criticized -- do we need 5,000 regulators at J.P. Morgan Chase? Would that make it better? People here know government has a huge, critical role. But for the President of the United States to say that a small businessperson didn't build his business confounds everything about the specialness of America --

DAVID GREGORY:
But a poor choice of words. The broader context is about the need for government to make investment, infrastructure and transportation in a way that helps private enterprise thrive. You don't think that was part of the broader context of what he was saying?

HALEY BARBOUR:
The problem with this administration is they want government to be so big that it sucks all the money out of the private sector. And their idea of any government spending is an investment. Well, baloney. That's not true. Does government make some great investments? Look at the space program. But don't say everything we do is an investment. And don't say ‘if we just spend more money on this, that or the other it's going to get better.’ Look at education; some of the highest spending school districts and states in the country have the worst results. You can't judge politicians by how much money they're willing to spend on education; you gotta judge them by the results that they get. And that's what these people -- these people are result-oriented just like the American people are result-oriented. And you look at that debt clock: our country's been around, what, 236 years. In 233 of them we ran up $10 million of debt. In three and a half, this president has increased it by half. Half of our debt was under this administration in the last three and a half years. They don't want government. They know government can't spend itself rich any more than our families can spend themselves rich.

DAVID GREGORY:
And they're dealing from the overhang of the accumulation of that debt under a Republican president and Congress as well, which a lot of even Republicans acknowledge. Something else I heard last night from Governor Christie is that this party, just like the Democratic Party, needs to get into the position of principled compromise. Where will a President Romney, if that comes to pass, find a way to compromise? On what, do you think?

HALEY BARBOUR:
Well, I thought that was one of the most jarring criticisms of Obama. I worked for Ronald Reagan. We had a Democratic House every day Ronald Reagan was president. We passed the Reagan economic plan, we passed Social Security reform, we passed immigration reform, the 1986 tax reform bill. Because Ronald Reagan made it where he learned how to work with a Democratic Congress, and he compromised on everything he did. And in fairness, that's not a partisan statement. Bill Clinton had a Republican House, Republican Senate when he did welfare reform and when he did the first balanced budget in a generation. President Obama refuses to even try to do that. Everybody, David, watching this knows a lot of Republicans said publicly, ‘I think Simpson Bowles for tax reform is a good starting place. And I'm not saying I'm for everything. It's a good starting place.’ Obama's commission’s report -- he acted like it never happened.

DAVID GREGORY:
All right. Well, where does Mitt Romney reach principled compromise? He’s got to be thinking about that, because it's not like the conditions are going to get easier if he's elected president. There's a fiscal cliff. There's all this polarization. Congress could look the same. Give me an example of where he would actually compromise or should compromise?

HALEY BARBOUR:
Well, I can't speak for him, but I have no doubt in my mind that he would look at tax reform that generated more revenue. You would have lower rates, very importantly, lower rates, but fewer tax preferences, generate more revenue. He also understands the best way to get more revenue is more economic growth. He will be for getting control of spending. I am shocked, though, that nobody ever says Ryan's ‘draconian budget’ increases spending by 3.1% a year, and Obama's budget increases spending by 4.3% a year. Now what’s draconian about that? Romney is going to be willing to control spending in a rational way that gets us to a balanced budget, that with growth, on top of CBO scoring, is a lot, lot faster. You were around, David. We proposed, when I was chairman, a balanced budget in seven years. And everybody said, ‘Oh, you can't balance the budget in seven years.’ When President Clinton agreed to that budget in his second term, balanced the budget in three years, because of the combination of growth and controlled spending. By the way, that's the only time Medicare spending ever has gone down. You know, the Democrats have every campaign, ‘Republicans are going to cut Medicare, Republicans are going to cut Medicare.’ The only time Medicare spending actually went down -- which was a tiny, tiny amount -- Democrat president, Bill Clinton.

DAVID GREGORY:
Let's get back to the campaign a little bit, because that's important. The Wall Street Journal, writing again about gender, the problem that Todd Akin, the Congressman from Missouri, has created for the party. The first night of this convention was in part about reaching out to women, reaching suburban women. And if you listened to Ann Romney it was certainly a lot about reaching out to moms and reaching out to suburban women. Describe in the way that you thought she may have reshaped this dialogue, and even the perception for the party?

HALEY BARBOUR:
Well, I think she makes a big difference with women because women know one thing:There's nobody that knows as much about a man as his wife. And if you want to look down into somebody's heart and soul, that's the best microscope that you can do it through. Oh, she's very, very good. Very real. Made some points, factual points, that most people never imagined, you know: pregnant, and with a little baby -- and I thought the part that I could identify with -- used the ironing board for the dining room table. I thought she was very, very good. Of course women are important -- heck, they're 53% or 54% of the vote. But for us, we've got a big gender gap where we're ahead among men by eight or 10 points, and Obama's ahead among women by eight or 10 points. And the issues that we think are really important, we think are as important or more important to women than anybody. They're the ones that pay the bills. They're the healthcare chief in their families., and the things that their children are going to have to pay for. I think women very much identify with these issues that are, quote, ‘women's issues’ because they fit women's lives.

DAVID GREGORY:
Final point, Governor: At the end of this convention what are you looking for in terms of actually measurable impact coming out of here?

HALEY BARBOUR:
Well, we have a situation these days where you have the conventions back to back. Bang, bang. It used to be you'd have a convention, there'd be three weeks and whatever, and you could really look at polling for three weeks and see was it a one-night blip. But you can't really judge that very well. Here's what I'm looking for: The American people to come out of here knowing the challenger much, much better. President's in their house every day. He's in your living room every day. You know him, made up your mind about him. But Romney for the last five months has suffered $200 million of carpet bombing, fear and smear. And this has to be part of letting people see the real Mitt Romney. And I thought we had a good start last night.

DAVID GREGORY:
Before I let you go, as we're watching Isaac batter the Gulf Coast here, what's your assessment about what the impact is and what the response has been like?

HALEY BARBOUR:
It's a large storm, but it's not a powerful storm. Lots of the time it wasn't even a hurricane. But it is wet, wet, wet. There's a huge amount of water. There's been some flooding in our state, low lying areas. Very, very little rain damage. I think two weeks or a month from now, David, we will look back and if there's 12 or 20 inches of rain, the biggest economic damage in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas is going to be damage to the crops. There's a huge soybean crop out there worth $17 a bushel, and there's a cotton crop. The corn has mostly been harvested. But you could see billions of losses in agriculture because of crops sitting there being ruined. Both in to volume and to value.

DAVID GREGORY:
Governor, thank you.

HALEY BARBOUR:
Thank you, David.

DAVID GREGORY:
Appreciate it.

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