Washington
(Feb 8, 2009)
In an interview from Kabul, Afghanistan with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) highlighted the work of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan – work Boehner, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), and several of their House GOP colleagues have seen firsthand in a congressional delegation visit to the two countries this weekend. During the interview, Boehner stressed the need to listen to U.S. commanders on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan in order to make progress and overcome the challenges that remain in both nations. Boehner also commented on the
trillion-dollar spending deal struck by Senate Democrats in recent days and noted that the
House GOP economic recovery plan would create twice as many jobs – 6.2 million total – at half the cost of the congressional Democrats’ legislation. Finally, Boehner raised concerns about reports that the White House will politicize the 2010 Census by taking it out of the Commerce Department and orchestrating it from the White House Chief of Staff's office. Following are highlights of Boehner’s appearance and video of the interview:
Click HERE to View Video
BOEHNER URGES PRESIDENT OBAMA TO LISTEN TO AMERICAN COMMANDERS ON THE GROUND IN IRAQ TO CONTINUE THE PROGRESS MADE BY AMERICAN TROOPS:
“Well, clearly things in Iraq are going very well. We spent time in three different parts of the country. Our forces on the ground, our armed forces could not be doing a better job. And I think that as we get closer and closer to the end of our activity there I think it is important for the President to listen to our commanders on the ground and to our diplomats because while things are going well, there is no guarantee that they will continue to go well and so as we get through the next few months, I think those conversations with the administration and our officials on the ground will continue and I hope they will make decisions based on what those commanders tell them.”
BOEHNER HIGHLIGHTS THE NEED FOR MORE TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN TO HELP SECURE THE COUNTRY AND BRING GREATER SECURITY TO THE REGION:
“There is no question that the Taliban continues to exist throughout Afghanistan, particularly in the south and southwest. But I don’t think it is accurate to say that they are stronger than they were. I think what we are seeing is a different type of activity out of the Taliban. Clearly more troops in Afghanistan would help secure the country and bring greater security to the people who live here. And I know that the commanders have asked for more troops and I know it is under consideration, and I’m hopeful that the President and his international security team will in fact send more troops here to better secure this country.”
BOEHNER NOTES THE HOUSE GOP’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN WOULD PRODUCE TWICE THE NUMBER OF JOBS – 6.2 MILLION TOTAL – AT HALF THE COST OF THE SENATE DEMOCRATS’ TRILLION-DOLLAR SPENDING DEAL:
“[The Senate] bill will still spend over $800 billion and creates only 3 million jobs maybe over the next couple of years. House Republicans put a working group together led by Eric Cantor and we have a bill that costs half as much and produces 6.2 million jobs over the next two years. And at the end of the day the American people don’t want a lot of wasteful, Washington, spending. What they want is to keep more of what they he earn and what our proposal does is to allow American families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn and produces a lot more jobs at half the cost and frankly at almost twice the speed. It’s a much better proposal… All I know is the direction of it certainly doesn’t look good. It looks like way, way too much money that will produce very little results.”
BOEHNER WARNS AGAINST WHITE HOUSE TAKEOVER OF TRADITIONALLY NONPARTISAN CENSUS:
“It just tells me that the census, the counting of the population of the United States is going to be politicized. This is very simple, Chris, the Constitution says that every ten years there will be a count of all persons who live in the United States. That means that we need to have an actual count. And why this has to be moved from the Commerce Department over to the chief of staff’s office, I would think he’d have better things to do, than to coordinate the census, but apparently they have ideas about what they might want to do to politicize the counting of our population next year.”