Prepared Remarks of House Republican Leaders At A Press Conference
PREPARED REMARKS OF HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE
PARTICIPANTS: HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH); REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA); REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN); REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN); REP. CYNTHIA LUMMIS (R-WY)
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REP. BOEHNER: As we approach the President's 100 days in office, I think it can be summed up pretty simply. An awful lot of spending, taxing and way too much debt piled on the backs of our kids and grandkids and I think a lot of Americans are making it clear that they're opposed to all of this spending and borrowing that's going on.
Today, we have on the floor the budget resolution put forth by our Democrat colleagues that calls for the biggest increase in spending in our nation's history and trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see. This here is the most expensive credit card in the history of our country. It's a voting card for a Member of Congress and too many Members of Congress are continuing to vote for more spending, more taxes and more debt piled on the backs of our kids and grandkids. The team that I lead, and my colleagues behind me, are using this credit card responsibly and saying 'no' to more spending, more debt and more taxes.
REP. CANTOR: Thank you, Leader, and good morning.
Leader Boehner and I attended a meeting at the White House last Thursday. It was a bipartisan, bicameral meeting and one of the very positive things that came out of that meeting, I believe, was a commitment on the part of the President and his Administration to do everything we can to work together to achieve some meaningful savings so that we can get off of this incredible spending spree that the American people are witnessing.
Just last night, we saw Speaker Pelosi issue a letter to her Committee Chairmen, asking them to present her with ideas of how they could achieve savings in their areas of jurisdiction. We, in the Republican Conference, over the next several days, will be producing a list of very thoughtful and meaningful ways to achieve some spending restraint and to achieve some savings for the American people. After we compile that list and we transmit that to the White House, as the President has requested, we look forward to working across the aisle to achieve those spending requests and savings priorities.
It is very important that we include everyone in the process - from the American people to the Blue Dogs to the others on the Democrat side of the aisle that want to join us in actually achieving some thoughtful, meaningful savings on the part of the American people.
REP. BLACKBURN: Sunday was Debt Day. I think everyone is aware of that. And from here on out, our children and grandchildren are paying for what the federal government spends this year. Earliest that we've had Debt Day in a long time, maybe even ever. And I think it causes us to look at this first hundred day mark and say, you know, every day brings new concerns from the American people and that is what we are hearing from our constituents.
This Administration is spending a billion dollars an hour. Twenty-four billion dollars a day. It is a record pace in spending. The taxes that they are heaping on our children and grandchildren are unprecedented. Last week, we at Energy and Commerce Committee really focused in on the cap and trade issue--cap our growth, trade our jobs issue that has come before us. We know that the American people agree with us on this--they have spoken out. They don't want to pay thousands of dollars more per year in taxes, which is what this legislation would cost them. We appreciate that they are working with us and they support us as we fight to stop this issue and keep it from advancing this year. So a hundred thank-yous to the American people for standing with us in this 100 days. And we are going to continue to fight the advancement of the bad ideas that are coming from this Administration.
REP. LUMMIS: Good morning.
When I look at this first 100 days I see it as the difference between the carrot and the stick. And the approach that Nancy Pelosi and the Administration have chosen is the stick approach. And among the things they want to do is stick it to the American people with a national energy tax that will cost the American people $646 billion. That amounts to over $3,100 per family. That is going to hurt the profitability of small businesses, especially family businesses, whether it's agriculture or Main Street America.
I shudder to think that a year from now, my sister could be turning on her irrigation pumps and trying to grow an organic wheat product for the American people to consume, and she can't even make a profit. Right now her profit is between zero and four percent, and if you take that profit away with higher energy prices and higher taxes, and take away the Bush tax cuts so she can't even pass along her farm to her children, this is not the America that we know. This is a sharp turn to the left. This is taking the stick approach with the American people. You will consume less electricity. You will lower your standard of living and help raise the standard of living in other countries accordingly. You will consume less oil. We will produce less energy here in America, and we'll take more from foreign countries. That is the America that the American people are rejecting. That's why there were tea parties. That's why the American people are mobilized.
This first 100 days represents the stick. What the Republicans offer is the carrot. We should be incentivizing people to consume electricity. We should be incentivizing local action. We should be incentivizing people to insulate buildings so they consume less electricity. We should be incentivizing people to produce in America so they're not having to make a decision between opening a steel plant in America or opening it in Brazil. This is the astounding difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. This is the chasm that has been produced by this first 100 days.
I applaud the American people and the Republicans for attempting to hold the line on spending, for pointing out to the American people the sharp departure from the America we know to the America we are coming to learn. And I hope that in the months ahead the American people will continue to voice their concern. When I am home, people say, "I fear for our country, and the enemy is within." That is an astounding statement when you consider just two years ago we were looking at enemies from without our borders. It is a new America, it is the one that the people are fearful of, and it is being brought on by the sharp left turn by elitists in the East who just don't get it.
REP. PENCE: While millions of the President's partisans welcome the 100 day marker with enthusiasm, many other millions of productive Americans see this 100 days as an opportunity lost, and greet this marker in time with disappointment. Think about it, 100 days ago, the President took to a podium on the West side of the Capitol and promised a new era of bipartisanship, a new era of fiscal responsibility. And under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in the Senate both the bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility in 100 short days are a distant memory.
The reality is that we have seen some of the most partisan, one- sided, lopsided legislation in my short tenure in the Congress of the United States, or in the memory of many who have served even longer in the form of stimulus bill, omnibus bill and the passage of the President's budget to be signed into law this week. Bipartisanship is gone and certainly there has been a total abandonment of the President's state of commitment to fiscal responsibility and reform. In many ways it is altogether fitting that this President would mark his first 100 days by signing the most fiscally irresponsible budget in American history into law.
The American people know we can't borrow and spend and bail our way back to a growing economy. But Democrats in Congress and this Administration have embraced a different view and worse still they intend to pay for this massive budget with deficits over a trillion dollars over the next decade by raising taxes on virtually ever household in American in the form of the cap and trade bill.
House Republicans at 100 days, at 200 days, at 300 days and beyond will redouble our efforts to stand up for this and future generations of Americans who demand that this Congress come together, practice what we preach about fiscal responsibility and reject any efforts to increase the cost of energy to consuming Americans in the form of cap and trade. We have to get back to basics; we have to admit the opportunities lost in the first 100 days and get back to a larger vision of bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility.
END.
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