7:04AM ET
HARRY SMITH: Also in Washington for an exclusive interview, is
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors
Association. Governor, good morning.
HALEY BARBOUR: Hey, Harry, good morning.
SMITH: So Republicans predicted to win big in the House tomorrow. Are
you going to go so far as to say they're going to take the Senate, too?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: One Day To Go; GOP's Plan for Shifting Balance of Power]
BARBOUR: Well, I hope it's as good as Bill Plante says. I think it is
highly likely we will win a majority in the House. But, it's harder in
the Senate. It's more of a stretch. We have to win a net of ten. I think
we'll make significant gains in the Senate but I don't know if we can
make it to ten. You have to run the table.
SMITH: Yeah. You know an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal
editorial page today and it says that last - the last election was a
voting out the other party and that this election, again, will be the
same thing, that Americans are going to vote out the party in power.
What promise can you make that what Americans are yearning for will be
answered in the election tomorrow?
BARBOUR: I think it's a very important observation that this is a
referendum on Obama's policies and the American people do not like
Obama's policies. They don't like all of this outrageous spending. They
don't like running up the deficits. They don't like piling trillions of
dollars of debt on our children and grandchildren, and they don't think
it works. They think it's been bad for the economy, that it has made it
harder to create jobs.
SMITH: But if that's-
BARBOUR: So we Republicans - we have to understand they're not saying
'hey, we love you Republicans,' they're saying, 'we're not satisfied
with this and we'll give you guys a chance.'
SMITH: Okay. Because that becomes interesting. If that's true now and
that was true two years ago, what do the Republicans understand now that
they didn't understand two years ago?
BARBOUR: Well, I think, very importantly, what you're going to see is
the Republicans are going to respond to what the American people are
saying. Less spending, no taxes, no-
SMITH: $100 billion - one of the promises is they're going to cut $100
billion out of the budget in this first year. Is that really possible?
BARBOUR: Harry, $100 billion is less than 3% of the federal budget. In
Mississippi, our appropriations this year are 13.3% below where they
were two years ago. I was on TV yesterday with Tim Kaine, the Democratic
National Chairman, a very nice guy, by the way. In Virginia, they've
just cut their spending by billions of dollars. I mean, the idea that
the federal government can't save 3%, the American people know better
than that.
SMITH: Last but not least, a lot of people are wondering, 1994 was an
important year for Republicans and Republicans swept in two years after
Bill Clinton took office. Some people would say that didn't end so well
for the Republicans, especially with the stalemated government. Have you
any concerns that that might happen again?
BARBOUR: Well, I think it's very likely. It's going to be up to the
President. I think the Republicans are going to hear the people very
plainly, 'cut out all this spending, don't raise our taxes. Focus on job
creation, economic growth.' What's the President going to hear? And I
can't answer that.
SMITH: Alright.
BARBOUR: We're going to have to hear from the President.
SMITH: Last but not least, are you going to run for president?
BARBOUR: Well, after this election's over, we'll sit down and see if
there's anything to think about, but I appreciate the idea.
SMITH: Governor Barbour, as always, a pleasure to speak with you, thanks so much for your time.
BARBOUR: Thank you, Harry.
SMITH: Alright, take care. Maggie.
MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: That is not a no. We will watch that.
