Top 40 John Sununu Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Perspective gives us the ability to accurately contrast the large with the small, and the important with the less important. Without it we are lost in a world where all ideas, news, and information look the same. We cannot differentiate, we cannot prioritize, and we cannot make good choices.”

— John Sununu

2. “Energy and environmental regulation, transportation, and broadband policy all benefit when legislators have a basic grounding in the technical concepts behind business models, products, and innovation.”

— John Sununu

3. “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.”

— John Sununu

4. “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.”

— John Sununu

5. “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.”

— John Sununu

6. “Not since the steam engine has any invention disrupted business models like the Internet. Whole industries including music distribution, yellow-pages directories, landline telephones, and fax machines have been radically reordered by the digital revolution.”

— John Sununu

7. “The Internet will win because it is relentless. Like a cannibal, it even turns on it own. Though early portals like Prodigy and AOL once benefited from their first-mover status, competitors surpassed them as technology and consumer preferences changed.”

— John Sununu

8. “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.”

— John Sununu

9. “Defining marriage is a power that should be left to the states. Moreover, no state should be forced to recognize a marriage that is not within its own laws, Constitution, and legal precedents.”

— John Sununu

10. “Growing up, I was encouraged to get a good education, get a real job doing something I enjoyed, and, should the opportunity present itself, consider public service as just that: a chance to serve, not an end in itself.”

— John Sununu

11. “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.”

— John Sununu

12. “After everyone has had a chance to bluster, posture, and pontificate, we are left with one basic question: under any foreseeable circumstance, would it be in our national interest to default on our debt? The answer is unequivocally no.”

— John Sununu

13. “When Obama gutted Medicare by taking $717 billion out of it, the Romney plan does not do that. The Ryan plan mimicked part of the Obama package there, the Romney plan does not. That’s a big difference.”

— John Sununu

14. “The campaigns of Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and John McCain all outperformed expectations on their support from independent voters. They made no effort to shy away from ideology, but conveyed to voters that their policies were driven by principle, not party talking points.”

— John Sununu

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

— John Sununu

16. “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.”

— John Sununu

17. “It’s good to give seniors more choices and more options, let them choose a plan that’s best for them and target assistance to the lowest income people.”

— John Sununu

18. “Having a Congress with a more diverse educational and professional background would serve the country well. And given the budget challenges facing America today, we might benefit from a few more cold, calculating problem solvers, and fewer courtroom impresarios.”

— John Sununu

19. “It worries me about our unwillingness to really address reforms and modernization in Medicare. This thing was designed 37 years ago. It has not evolved to keep pace with current medical technology.”

— John Sununu

20. “As a boy, when I was bad, my mother would chew me out in Spanish. And since I was bad a lot, I learned a lot of Spanish!”

— John Sununu

21. “People in New Hampshire know that I’ll talk thoughtfully, substantively about any issue.”

— John Sununu

22. “Households and businesses cut expenses every day. Passing a financial down payment alongside the debt limit sends the right message to the public, and gives members of Congress greater comfort, or cover, depending on your perspective.”

— John Sununu

23. “I’m running for senator because it’s time for a change.”

— John Sununu

24. “Obama’s view of the tax code is inherently political: Whom can we hit next? Energy companies, jet owners, bankers? Instead, the question should be how to promote economic efficiency by raising revenue without trying to manipulate corporate or personal behavior.”

— John Sununu

25. “Shakespeare would never have gone far in today’s politically correct world.”

— John Sununu

26. “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.”

— John Sununu

27. “A candidate who tries to steer a path down the middle in an effort to ‘win independents’ runs the risk of convincing everyone that they have no core values. As much as – or more than – any other voters, independents want to see conviction and authenticity.”

— John Sununu

28. “I believe our foreign assistance should be scrutinized, should be debated, and that we should strike the right balance, but in all cases the foreign assistance that we provide around the world should be used to further our national security interests.”

— John Sununu

29. “It doesn’t take Warren Buffett to realize that when companies don’t know what new rules will look like, it affects their ability to commit capital and create new jobs.”

— John Sununu

30. “Simply put, broadband voice is an interstate matter that must be dealt with through clear national standards.”

— John Sununu

31. “The nominee is Mitt Romney. Paul Ryan joins Mitt Romney. The budget plan, the approach on Medicare and all of that is going to be the Romney plan. What he has is a man as his number two who understands the details of budgets, who has demonstrated a willingness to take on tough issues.”

— John Sununu

32. “I understand the process of politics and the game of television.”

— John Sununu

33. “Politicians wishing to set a better tone should have the discipline to avoid televised cage matches.”

— John Sununu

34. “Let individuals create real wealth, empower them, create something that they can leave for their children.”

— John Sununu

35. “Bureaucrats behave very differently than a private-sector manager because their motivations are different. Permanent bureaucrats, no matter how senior, worry about their next job.”

— John Sununu

36. “The American formula for creating business is not to have the government create business.”

— John Sununu

37. “Nothing panics politicians like $4 a gallon gas.”

— John Sununu

38. “I’m an old man of 73, and I’ve been around a long time. If I don’t know something by now, I probably never will.”

— John Sununu

39. “Office holders are a self-selected group; you don’t get elected if you don’t put your name on the ballot. There are many people who would do a great job, but who would never think to run. Find them. Badger them. Get them elected. They might not thank you for it, but a lot of other people will.”

— John Sununu

40. “We’ll always have bureaucracies, but bureaucracies led by bureaucrats might be too much of a bad thing.”

— John Sununu

41. “If you wait until those weapons pose a direct, clear, present danger to the United States, you’ve probably waited too long.”

— John Sununu