HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

House GOP Leaders Press White House to Allow Governors, State Legislators to Join Health Care “Summit”

Noting that legislation to “opt out” of Obamacare has been introduced in 36 states, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) have sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel asking that the invitation to the planned Feb. 25 health care “summit” at the White House be extended to the nation’s governors and state legislators.

“Will the President be inviting officials and lawmakers from the states to participate in this discussion?” Boehner and Cantor asked Emanuel.  “As you may know, legislation has been introduced in at least 36 state legislatures, similar to the proposal just passed by the Democratic-controlled Virginia State Senate, providing that no individual may be compelled to purchase health insurance.  Additionally, governors of both parties have raised concerns about the additional costs that will be passed along to states under both the House and Senate bills.”

In a statement released Monday night, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs criticized the Boehner-Cantor letter, but did not address the question of whether state officials would be given a role in the Feb. 25 event.

“One of the fundamental problems with the approach the Obama Administration has taken to health care is that it seems rooted in a Washington-knows-best mentality.  Excluding the voices of America’s governors and state legislators from the proposed ’summit’ would compound this error,” Boehner said.  “There’s a revolt going on in the states right now against the bills Washington Democrats are trying to impose on America.  The White House may want to pretend the revolt isn’t happening, but it’s real.”

Boehner and Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Mike Rogers (R-MI) last year launched the GOP State Solutions project, an initiative aimed at highlighting solutions put forth by reform-minded governors and state officials outside the Beltway.  Through the State Solutions project, House Republicans have been working with state officials, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and grass-roots activists to advance state-level legislation declaring individual citizens’ freedom against intrusive health care mandates from the federal government.

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WRONG AGAIN: White House Can’t Get its Facts Straight on “Stimulus”

Once again, the White House can’t get its facts straight on its nearly trillion-dollar “stimulus.”  Now it is falsely claiming that House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “claimed credit” for stimulus projects in Ohio after he joined all House Republicans in strongly opposing the Democrats’ $862 billion monstrosity that has failed to produce the jobs they promised.  It’s no surprise that this latest claim is just flat wrong too.

Here are the facts: In March 2009, Ohio’s Republican congressional delegation wrote to Governor Ted Strickland (D-OH) expressing their frustration that Ohio would allocate approximately $57 million in federal “stimulus” dollars to a slush fund to study projects that may never get built instead of projects that are “shovel-ready.”  This Associated Press report details the scheme, reporting that Ohio “transportation officials passed over some ready-to-go construction projects and steered about 7 percent of their $774 million share for planning and preliminary studies.”  Strickland ignored the letter and kept the slush fund open.

On April 16, Ohio Republicans wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking him to investigate Ohio’s plans to create this slush-fund.  Several months later, federal officials took action to shut Gov. Strickland’s slush fund down and order the state to put the money into shovel-ready projects.

In a statement released on June 15, 2009, Boehner thanked federal officials for shutting down Gov. Strickland’s slush fund.  Boehner stated that “[t]he stated intent of the so-called stimulus package was to create jobs, and certainly a $57 million slush-fund studying projects did nothing to achieve that goal.” At no time did Boehner “take credit for” any project or “praise” the stimulus bill.

More than three million Americans have lost their job since the Democrats’ “stimulus” was enacted – the same “stimulus” that media reports have shown is chock full of waste, fraud and abuse.  Yet this White House still can’t answer the one question on Americans’ mind: “Where are the jobs?”

Instead of making false claims, it’s long past time for this White House to do what it promised: work in a bipartisan way to focus on helping small businesses create jobs for American families struggling in today’s economy.

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Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) Delivers Weekly Republican Address

Delivering the weekly Republican address, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) says that President Obama’s latest job-killing budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much from our kids and grandkids.

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Americans Say “Yes” to Job-Creating Energy Reform – While Washington Democrats Drag Their Feet

Expanded production of American-made energy is a key component of the comprehensive “all of the above” energy reform plan introduced last year by Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN).  House Republicans’ American Energy Act would create at least 1 million new American jobs and help leave our children and grandchildren with a healthier, cleaner environment.

President Obama, in his State of the Union address this year, called for “making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.”  This was a welcome development from the President.  Perhaps he was listening to the American people.  But as yesterday’s Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog pointed out, his Administration is instead trying to conceal the fact that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of more American energy:

An email last fall from a top Interior Department official indicates public comments ran two-to-one in favor of a Bush administration plan to expand offshore drilling.

The email from Liz Birnbaum, director of the Minerals Management Service which manages the nation’s offshore oil and natural gas reserves, also suggests how Interior Secretary Ken Salazar could avoid publicly acknowledging the support for the plan, which calls for opening the Atlantic seaboard to drilling, a step many environmentalists and some Democrats oppose.

The Secretary may get questions about this [Freedom of Information Act] request while he’s in Houston … We do have a preliminary tabulation of the comments, it has not yet gone to the Secretary,’ according to the email dated last Oct. 27 and sent to several Salazar aides. ‘So the Secretary can honestly say in response to any questions that he’s [SIC] has not yet seen the analysis of the comments - staff is still working on it. I did, however, confirm to him the 2-1 split that these guys are emphasizing.’…

The proposal, published by the Bush administration on its last business day in office, is awaiting a decision by Salazar. Shortly after taking office, Salazar extended the public comment period by 180 days. Oil and gas industry officials and Republicans accused the secretary of foot-dragging.

The department said in September, after the comment period ended, that it received more than 530,000 comments, but didn’t say how many were in favor or opposed.

At a time when the American people are asking “where are the jobs?” why is the Obama Administration sitting on its hands when expanding domestic production of energy in an environmentally safe way would create thousands of good paying jobs?

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Obama v. Obama on Republicans’ Better Solutions

The House Republican Conference released the following web video this afternoon:

President Obama and his administration can’t seem to get it straight on Republican Solutions.

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The President’s $3.8 Trillion Budget in Graphs

This week, the President unveiled a record breaking $3.8 trillion budget that explodes the deficit to an unprecedented $1.6 trillion next year.  Despite the rhetoric of fiscal responsibility, this job-killing budget simply spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. 

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) commented today:

The President and Democratic leaders think their political problems are that they haven’t focused their message accurately.  Well, let me say to the President, and to Ms. Pelosi, and to Senator Reid: it’s not the message that the American people are concerned about, it’s what you are doing.

What the Democrats are doing is punishing small businesses - who are responsible for creating nearly 80 percent of all new jobs. 

The following graphs illustrate the impact the policies out-of-touch Washington Democrats are pursuing on our nation’s fiscal health and underscore the importance of putting our fiscal house in order.  (The first three are courtesy of the Senate Budget Committee Republican staff).

The Administration’s budget calls for trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see:

The Democrats’ budget doubles, then triples the national debt:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Leader Boehner Touts GOP’s Better Solutions in New Web Video

In a web video posted today, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) touted the “Better Solutions” document he handed President Obama on behalf of all House Republicans at the House Republican retreat on January 29, 2010. 

Leader Boehner noted that:

Last week in his State of the Union, President Obama challenged critics of his trillion-dollar government takeover of health care to show him a better plan. I raised my hand.

Because the fact is, Republicans have offered common-sense solutions to give Americans the health care reform they want. In fact, weve offered the only health care plan that will lower premiums by up to 10 percent.

Whether the topic has been on health care, the budget, energy or putting Americans back to work, Republicans have stuck with our principles, listened to the people, and offered better solutions to the challenges families and small businesses are facing every day.

 Incredibly, at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire just yesterday, President Obama was back to peddling the same old myth that Republicans are the party of “no ideas.”  Just days after acknowledging repeatedly on live national television that Republicans have offered alternative solutions on the major issues - and that he has read them - the President stood before a partisan audience and said:

[W]hat I’ve done is I’ve said to the Republicans, show me what you’ve got.  You’ve been sitting on the sidelines criticizing what we’re proposing… So here’s my thing:  You got a better idea?

With all due respect Mr. President, House Republicans do have better solutions.   In fact, just last week, at the Republican retreat in Baltimore on January 29, the President said of House Republicans better solutions:

I suspect I will embrace some of them.  Some of them I’ve already embraced….I’ve read your legislation.  I take a look at this stuff….Actually I’ve gotten many of your ideas.  I’ve taken a look at them….I’ve read it.  I can tell you what’s in it

What accounts for the disconnect between the president’s reportedly off-the-cuff comments last week in Baltimore, and his rhetoric in New Hampshire yesterday?  One can only conclude that in the eyes of senior White House partisans, the president had an “off-message” moment last week in acknowledging that the GOP has put forth serious alternatives - and the White House staff is now desperate to get the boss back onto the Democrats’ discredited “party of no ideas” talking points.

Last year, following Leader Boehner’s vow that Republicans “will not just be the party of opposition, but the party of better solutions,” House Republicans formed “solutions groups” in key policy areas, including the GOP Economic Recovery Solutions Group, chaired by Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), and the GOP American Energy Solutions Group, chaired by Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN).  The GOP solutions groups went on to produce detailed legislative alternatives that were presented throughout to President Obama, members of his administration, and the Democratic leadership in Congress over the course of 2009.  The summaries of these legislative alternatives are compiled in Better Solutions, a document that which covers GOP reform proposals on everything from jobs and health care to government spending and transparency.

The Better Solutions document and other information on GOP reform alternatives is available at Solutions.GOP.gov.

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President’s $3.8 Trillion Budget Kills School Choice in the Nation’s Capital

Yesterday, the President unveiled a record breaking $3.8 trillion budget that explodes the deficit to an unprecedented $1.6 trillion next year.  Despite the rhetoric of fiscal responsibility, the budget simply spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much.  Yet with all the profligacy that the FY 2011 budget represents, the President still finds room to kill one of the most successful and important programs enacted by Congress, the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).

The President states this is likely to be the “Final request for Federal funding for the DC OSP,” which can be found on page 1244 of the FY 2011 budget:

The Budget proposes to continue to provide private school vouchers for only those students currently enrolled in the program.  Based on current program participation rates and the amount of available program funding carried forward from prior fiscal years, it is expected that this will be the final request for Federal funding to support the Opportunity Scholarship program.  Any funds not used in 2011 will be available in future years to provide  scholarships to the current cohort of students.

The President is calling for this program’s termination despite the fact that the Department of Education is getting another massive injection of taxpayer money, as today’s New York Times reported:

The Obama administration said on Monday that it would ask Congress to raise education spending by about $3.5 billion, a 7.5 percent increase, for the 2011 fiscal year, even as it sought to limit other categories of domestic spending.

In other words, the Administration is jacking up funding for underachieving public schools in DC, while at the same time terminating funding for the successful DC school choice program.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) sent President Obama a letter last month strongly urging him to act to save the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington, D.C.   Leader Boehner and Senator Lieberman wrote that:

The D.C. OSP has been an effective educational alternative for more than 3,000 low-income students in the District of Columbia.  Terminating the program will be devastating for many low-income families who are zoned for underachieving and often unsafe schools, most of whom will not be selected to attend one of the area’s charter schools.

In an education speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10, 2009, you said you would direct Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to ‘use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars: It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.’  Mr. President, this program works.

The DC school choice program is a beacon of hope to thousands of children in the nation’s capital.  Ending it would a travesty - and a blow to the thousands of children who have benefited from the promise of a better future through education.

Mr. President, it’s not too late to reconsider your decision to kill school choice in Washington, D.C.

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State Revolt Grows Against ObamaCare’s “Individual Mandate”

Washington Democrats are still angling for ways to enact President Obama’s proposed government takeover of health care, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed in the states.  Reform-minded legislators in states from coast-to-coast are sending out-of-touch Washington Democrats a message on behalf of their constituents: Americans don’t want higher taxes, Medicare cuts, rationed care, and unfunded mandates - and they definitely don’t want the federal government forcing citizens to purchase health care, a key component of ObamaCare known as the “individual mandate.”   So far, “[l]awmakers in 35 states have filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions or statutes rejecting health insurance mandates,” according to an Associated Press report out today. 

The AP report notes:

[C]onservative lawmakers in more than two-thirds of the states are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates.  The proposals would assert a state-based right for people to pay medical bills from their own pocketbooks and prohibit penalties against those who refuse to carry health insurance….

Supporters of the state measures portray them as a way of defending individual rights and state sovereignty, asserting that the federal government has no authority to tell states and their citizens to buy health insurance.

Just yesterday, the Democratic-controlled State Senate in Virginia passed three bills that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance.  As the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported:

Breaking with their party and president, five Democrats yesterday helped push through the state Senate a Republican measure allowing Virginians to just say no to compulsory health insurance.  Voting 23-17, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved three identical proposals — Senate Bills 283, 311 and 417 — making it illegal to require residents to purchase health-care coverage.

The Washington Post noted that “[t]he bills were also expected to be approved by the GOP-controlled House of Delegates” and that “Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) said he will review the bills but supports their intent.” 

Last month, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) endorsed the states’ rebellion against the Democrats’ government takeover of health care:

All the burdensome mandates, tax hikes, and new layers of red tape Democrats are devising behind closed doors would wreak havoc on the states, so it’s no surprise a majority of them are already fighting back.  When we see so many reform-minded state legislators standing with the American people against Democrats’ government takeover of health care, we’re even more convinced that fighting this bill with everything we’ve got is the right thing to do.  Congressional Republicans will continue to lend our full support to this effort and look forward to having additional states come on board.

The American people have made it abundantly clear: they don’t want a government takeover of health care.  House Republicans agree, which is why they’ve proposed an alternative health care solution that’s one-ninth the size of the Democrats’ proposal and is the only proposal that will reduce health care premiums for millions of American families and small businesses.  And notably, it would do so without imposing an “individual mandate” that deprives Americans of their freedom.

Last year, Leader Boehner joined Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) in establishing the GOP State Solutions project as part of an ongoing effort to partner with reform-minded governors, state officials, and legislators and promote better solutions to the challenges facing the American people.

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Another Budget That Spends Too Much, Taxes Too Much, and Borrows Too Much

This morning the President released his $3.8 trillion fiscal year 2011 budget - a budget that includes more spending, more tax hikes, and a lot more borrowing, as  Politico reported this morning:

After a record $1.4 trillion shortfall in 2009, the administration now says the red ink will reach $1.56 trillion this year and be little better, $1.27 trillion in 2011…The outlook….adds up to $5.08 trillion in red ink over the next five years.  That’s $1.32 trillion or 35% more than the White House predicted 12 months ago.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) commented that:

Just three days after talking to House Republicans about the importance of fiscal responsibility, President Obama is submitting another budget that spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much.

Filled with more reckless spending and more unsustainable debt, the President’s budget is just more of the same at a time when the American people are looking for Democrats in Washington to listen and change course. Families asking ‘where are the jobs’ deserve better than more government ‘stimulus’ programs and another year of attempting to tax and spend our way to recovery. Under President Obama’s budget, the federal government will continue to live well beyond its means for years to come with no relief in sight.

The House Budget Committee Republican staff broke down the numbers in the massive $3.8 trillion budget in a document released today:

• Debt. The President’s FY 2011 budget doubles the debt in 5 years and triples it by FY 2019 from FY 2008 levels. I t would push the debt to $9.3 trillion this year, or 63.6% of gross domestic product [GDP], the largest debt in history and the largest debt as a share of our economy in 59 years….The interest bill on the debt would more than quadruple by the end of the decade, reaching $840 billion in 2020.
• Deficits. The budget boosts the deficit to a record level this year, $1.6 trillion or 10.6% of GDP. This is the largest deficit as a share of the economy since World War II.
• Total Spending. Spending reaches a record level of $3.8 trillion in FY 2011…spending is still 23.7% of the economy at the end of the decade (the historical average is 20%).
• Discretionary Spending Freeze? Since taking office, the President has signed appropriations bills and a “stimulus” that have led to an 84% increase in non-defense discretionary spending over two years. The spending freeze applies to only 13% of the budget and does not go into effect until next year.
• Taxes/Revenues.  By the Administration’s own estimates, the budget increases taxes by more than $2 trillion over 10 years.

Far from putting “our Nation back on a fiscally sustainable path,” as Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag claims, the President’s budget ensures that the United States will be ensnared in a “fiscal quagmire,” as Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) put it, for years to come. 

It doesn’t have to be this way, however.   As Leader Boehner said today:

Republicans have proposed adopting strict budget caps that limit federal spending on an annual basis and are enforceable by the President. These caps were a critical plank in the budget alternative Republicans proposed last year, led by Budget Committee Ranking Republican Paul Ryan, and they are notably absent from the President’s budget. Without these caps, the federal budget deficit will continue to spiral out of control and this broken status quo will continue.

It’s time for Democrats to scrap their budget-busting, job killing agenda, and work with Republicans to get America’s fiscal house in order. 

To read the House Republicans’ better solutions document that Leader Boehner handed the President last Friday, click HERE.

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