Press Conference with Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader; Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), House Minority Whip; Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN); and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Interview
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER; REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP; REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN); AND REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI)
SUBJECT: THE REPUBLICAN BUDGET ALTERNATIVE
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REP. BOEHNER: Families and small businesses across our country are struggling, and they are looking to Washington for solutions. Unfortunately, the budget proposal that President Obama has proposed and Democrats have embraced spends taxes and borrows too much. And the president's budget will hurt the economy and destroy jobs in our country at the very time that our country needs help, and I think it's completely irresposible.
Two nights ago, the president said, "We haven't seen a budget yet out of Republicans." Well, that's not true because, here it is, Mr. President.
Today we're introducing a detailed road to recovery plan. And our plan curbs spending, creates jobs, and cuts taxes while controlling the debt. And while the president's budget is anti- stimulus, we believe that our budget plan will strengthen the economy and restore fiscal sanity here in Washington. The American people expect both parties to work together to solve our economic problems, and we should start now.
This isn't the first time that we've offered a better solution. As you all know, we had a solution on the stimulus bill that cost half as much as the Democrat proposal and would have created twice as many jobs. And we're going to continue -- in those cases where we have to disagree with the president, we believe it is our obligation to offer a better solution if we're in disagreement.
And with that, let me turn it over to Eric Cantor, our whip.
REP. CANTOR: Thanks, Leader.
Good morning. As the leader said, we are here today because, yes, we do have a plan. We have ideas, and we directly challenge the administration and Speaker Pelosi to work with us on behalf of all Americans.
Today's Republican Road to Recovery is the latest in a series of GOP initiatives, solutions and plans. As you know, we had yesterday a roll-out of our housing plan. We had a stimulus plan, we will have a health care plan, we will have an energy plan, because we want to pull the agenda that this administration is pushing back away from such a radical attempt to depart from the mainstream, back to the middle, on the -- on behalf of all Americans and the problems that they're facing.
And you know, it's interesting. This administration ran a successful campaign before it was inaugurated into office -- this president ran a successful campaign in the middle. But this administration has moved so far to the left, working in tandem with groups like MoveOn.org, to ambush and strong-arm Democrats and Republican members of Congress. No one in either party deserves that. In just under 90 days, this administration has moved away from honest and open debate, and has become more ideological in its attempts to run through trillions of dollars of additional spending and racking up record levels of debt.
We are living in far too important of a time for this type of behavior. The American people deserve better. They deserve to see how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. And we are here to say we are ready to work on their behalf.
Thank you.
REP. BOEHNER: (Go ahead ?), Paul.
REP. RYAN: We believe we must offer our employers, the American people, two basic things: the truth about what's going on here in Washington and a choice about how we would do things differently.
And what we are doing is we are taking those principles, the principles that built America, and applying them to the problems of the day and offering bold and innovative solutions to our problems.
This is a broad economic recovery plan and how we would manage and who we would bring jobs back to the economy, how we would govern differently. A component of this will be offered in detail next Wednesday on the House floor, when we bring our alternative budget, the actual budget that Republicans stand for, as a alternative difference to the Obama budget.
We marked up the budget last night. The budget last night, as the Democrats in the markup said repeatedly, is the Obama budget. It's a budget that is so reckless, so irresponsible -- that must be opposed. It's a budget that doubles the national debt in five-and-a- half years and triples it in 10-1/2 years. It's a budget that increases our borrowing and our national debt under this presidency more than all prior presidencies.
It's a budget that seeks to impose a $1.9-trillion tax increase on the American economy, on all taxpayers, on all energy consumers, in the middle of a recession. It's a budget that promises a gusher of new spending followed by a gusher of new borrowing that we simply cannot sustain.
And so we're going to say, we would not do this, we would do things differently. So while we criticize, we propose. We've done that on stimulus. We're doing that on a number of issues: This is what we think is the best way to get our economy out of the ditch.
And next Wednesday, we're going to go to the Congress, to the people, with a budget that does not recklessly mortgage our children's future, that gets our borrowing under control, that does not pursue a gusher of new and frivolous spending and that does not raise taxes on the American people, on small businesses, on people with savings plans, in the middle of a recession.
We're going to show a leaner budget, a budget with lower taxes, lower spending and lower borrowing. And it's going to be a budget that says: Here's how best to get America out of this struggling economy, and here's how best to preserve the legacy of the American dream, the legacy of this country, which is to leave the next generation better off.
Unfortunately, the economic agenda of this administration and the budget of this Congress and this administration severs that legacy that every generation has until now maintained, which is to leave the next generation better off. We intend on keeping that legacy, and that's why we're offering these bold alternative ideas.
CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS (R-WA): I do the same thing that many mothers do across this country. I look at my 2-year-old and I wonder, what kind of a world will he have? Who will his friends be? And what will his achievements be? And I wonder, as many hard-working middle- class families do, will my child have the same freedoms and opportunities that we have today?
You know, when I was born, my share of the national debt was $1,800. Now when my son was born, and any child that's born today, their share of the debt is -- is increasing all the time, and with this budget it's a $30,000 bill. You know, baby gifts used to be pewter cups and blankets and rattles, but what this Congress is giving every baby that is born in this country right now is a $30,000 bill.
For their sake and for our next generation's sake, we need to stop this borrowing and spending. We cannot borrow and spend our way into prosperity. We cannot run these trillion-dollar deficits for the next decade and assume that we're going to continue to be a growing, vibrant country.
Government programs need to help people, but it's not the government that's the engine that will put this economy back on track. Only the private sector creates real jobs. And that happens with small businesses and mom-and-pop stores, Main Street. We need to be responsible, and we need to make sure that our children and our grandchildren continue to have the freedoms and opportunities that all of us have enjoyed.
REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN): After months of run-away spending at the federal level, the American people want us to put our fiscal house in order here in Washington, D.C.
Instead of making the same kind of sacrifices and hard choices that millions of Americans are making and small businesses and family farms and around kitchen tables, this administration has offered the most fiscally irresponsible budget in American history.
More spending, more government, more bailout is not a prescription for economic recovery. It's a prescription for further economic decline.
Under the president's budget, according to independent analysis, the annual deficits will swell to nearly a trillion dollars a year for the next 10 years. This administration's budget would double the national debt in the next six years. And even worse, this administration and the Democrats' budget would pay for this spending spree by raising taxes on virtually every American.
The national energy tax, according to independent studies, would impact every American household by more than $3,000 a year. And the president's increase in marginal tax rates would fall most heavily on small-business owners filing as individuals.
The American people know we can do better. And today, Republicans in the House of Representatives begin the process of articulating a vision that we can do better.
The Republican road to recovery encompasses our proposals for the budget. But it also encompasses other Republican solutions, having to do with energy independence, health care reform and beyond.
The American people want to see this economy recover. They want to see opportunities return to every working American. And the blueprint that we lay forward today is built on the timeless principles of fiscal discipline, of reform.
Let the debate begin.
REP. BOEHNER: Questions.
Q (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: On what? Details on what?
Q (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: This is a blueprint for where we're going. Are you asking about some other document?
Q (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: Yes, they are.
Q (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: As Mr. Ryan pointed out, he'll have his alternative budget details next week, built on these principles right here.
Q (Off mike.)
Q Secretary Geithner is back on the Hill today. Obviously there has been some skepticism about the amount of authority that he's asking for Treasury to have, to prevent future AIG-like crises.
I just want to know your assessment of the amount of authority Treasury's asking for.
REP. BOEHNER: I think there are a lot of questions surrounding his proposal. I think the Congress will take its time, in digesting the proposal, and try to determine how we rebalance our regulatory system, so that we don't have an economic crisis like this again.
Q Do you think that authority should involve another entity? (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: We'll see.
Q What is your goal for deficit reduction? In other words, the president's goal is to cut it in half by five years. What's your goal?
REP. BOEHNER: To do better.
Q How? How much?
REP. BOEHNER: You'll see next week.
Q Why not today? He asked you to present a budget.
REP. BOEHNER: Now, hold on. When the president came to Capitol Hill and laid out his blueprint, for his budget, during the State of the Union, he didn't offer his details until days later.
Today, we're offering our blueprint for where, we believe, we can help grow our economy again. And you'll see the details, of the budget portion of this, next week.
Q But it will be better than cutting it in half in five years.
REP. BOEHNER: Oh, it'll be better.
Q In general, where do you see the cuts coming?
REP. BOEHNER: We'll have -- wait and see next week.
Q The section on bailouts talks about your solution for fiscal insolvency on Wall Street, and it says receivership -- (off mike) -- Resolution Trust-type Corporation (is/and ?) the kind of stuff that a lot of liberal leading economists have (referenced ?). Do you sort of see yourself joining a little bit with liberal theory in that regard?
REP. BOEHNER: No, we're about trying to solve the economic crisis. You know, during the first phase of the TARP bill, it was our insurance program that we put in this bill that we still believe would work better than a lot of the proposals that have been tried and trotted out over the last three or four months.
And we believe some type of receivership, not unlike what happened under the Resolution Trust Corporation, would be a better way to dispose of some of these assets.
STAFF: Last question.
Q Mr. Boehner, you said -- criticized Democrats for throwing together a stimulus quickly that nobody knew what they were voting on. Are you saying that your budget will be unveiled on the same day that the House is expected to vote on it?
REP. BOEHNER: No. I expect it'll be out next week. They're still working on all the details. But understand, the budget really is a one-page document. It's just a bunch of numbers.
When you -- when the Democrats rolled an 1100-page bill out that no one had read and no one had a chance to read, they deserved the criticism they got, because if someone had read it, they'd have found those 50 words that showed up in that bill, some way, shape, or form, that prevented the government from holding back the payments to AIG executives.
And just trust me, we're going to get to the bottom of who knew what when. Somebody authored those words. Somebody brought them to the Hill. Someone authorized them to be part of this bill. And I hope that the resolution of inquiry that was introduced by LaTourette and Mr. McCotter does, in fact, continue to proceed so that we can get these documents and understand who's responsible for it. Everybody's been ducking and hiding here over the last week in terms of why that language was there. But the bigger point is, if people had read the bill -- or had a chance to read the bill, we'd have known much earlier.
Thanks.
END.
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