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SPEAKER: REP. JOHN A. BOEHNER, R-OHIO, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER

[*] BOEHNER: Good morning, everyone.

Vice President Biden is traveling to my home state of Ohio today to discuss the Democrats’ trillion-dollar stimulus plan.

Ohio’s unemployment rate is above 10 percent. The nation’s unemployment continues to rise. And families and small businesses across the country are asking, “Mr. Vice President, where are the jobs?”

The administration promised the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, and they promised the stimulus would create jobs immediately. It’s pretty clear now that the administration was wrong.

The bottom line is this: The stimulus isn’t creating enough jobs. And here’s -- but here’s one thing that the stimulus is accomplishing. You’ll recall earlier this year, during the debate on the stimulus bill, the Democrats promised that the stimulus would be free of earmarks. And a lot of us disagreed.

(AUDIO GAP)

It will drive millions of jobs to countries like India and China, somewhere in the range of 2.3 to 2.7 million jobs every year.

And many of the Democrats who supported this bill are feeling the backlash at home because, frankly, the American people are outraged over this job-killing legislation.

Now, it appears that Democrat leaders are going to walk their members down the plank once again when it comes time for their plan to have the government take over health care.

BOEHNER: Earlier this week, when I flew to Washington, the flight crew gave me a note. And I -- I woke from a nap, and here was a note from the flight crew: “Thank you for standing up and fighting against the government taking control of our health care.”

And it was signed by the captain and the -- and his -- his co- captain, and the flight attendant. Now, if you don’t think people in America aren’t beginning to understand what’s going on here in Washington, just let me tell you, they’re understanding pretty quickly.

Americans won’t support a plan that raises costs, increases taxes, and let bureaucrats take care -- or take -- deny the care that their family and their children need.

They also won’t support a government takeover that forces 114 million Americans off their current plans, according to an independent analysis of the House Democrat proposal.

Their plan will also destroy about 4.7 million jobs in America, according to methodology by Dr. Christina Romer, who chairs the President’s Council on Economic -- of Economic Advisers.

To use her methodology and use their formula, 4.7 million American jobs get killed as a result.

Listen, families and small businesses can’t afford this. And here we are at a time when we’re trying to save jobs in America, help get our economy going again, and all people see is a lot of wasteful Washington spending, job-killing measures like energy and health care, and, oh, yes, we’ve got to take care of the saltwater marsh mouse.

No wonder the American people think we’re nuts.

Questions?

QUESTION: Mr. Leader, the vice president’s in -- close to your home in Cincinnati.

BOEHNER: What a coincidence.

QUESTION: Well, partly because that state is in -- is always in play. There was a poll out early this week that showed Mr. Obama’s support, statewide, was rather tenuous.

What is the approach of the Republican Party, at this point, to hit Democrats on economic issues?

Because, in places like Ohio, that are struggling with jobs and manufacturing jobs, we see a potential opening there to resonate with voters.

BOEHNER: Well, exactly. Most Americans want their job, or they’re concerned that they’re going to be the next one to lose their job. And they heard all the promises from the administration that the trillion-dollar stimulus bill was really going to help or that their national energy tax was going to create more jobs.

BOEHNER: The fact is, their national energy tax bill would, I think, destroy more jobs, far more jobs than it will ever create.

And people want their jobs. They want to see the economy moving again, and they don’t see anything happening. And they were promised by this administration that this money would go out quickly; on the infrastructure side, that it would be -- we would have shovel-ready projects.

Well, when you look at how long it took ODOT to finally get a contract out, and you look at how some of the money’s spent, you’ll see it’s not for shovel-ready projects. As a matter of fact, they took $20 million of stimulus funds to -- to do a study of a proposed project in southwest Ohio that -- that the supporters will admit can’t -- couldn’t begin construction for at least seven years.

Yes?

QUESTION: (inaudible) in a letter from seven Democratic senators today to Director Panetta, they said that you recently testified that (inaudible) Congress in 2001.

What’s your reaction to that letter? And do you think that it somehow backs up the (inaudible) claim that the CIA (inaudible)?

BOEHNER: Listen, our intelligence professionals are on the leading edge of helping to keep Americans safe and American assets around the world safe. They’re on the leading edge of supplying information to our military so they can be successful in their efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’ve worked closely with our intelligence professionals, and they are that -- professionals. And I do not believe that the CIA lied to Congress. I’m still waiting for Speaker Pelosi to either put up the facts or retract her statement and apologize.

And I don’t know that this letter changes anything with regard to the speaker’s action.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (inaudible) on intelligence matters, (inaudible).

BOEHNER: Listen, I think some people are trying to mix apples and oranges here. When it comes to the information with regard to enhanced interrogation techniques, it’s pretty clear what the CIA briefed members of Congress on. And for the speaker to say that she wasn’t briefed, and then she said she was briefed, and then to come out and accuse them of lying, I think is -- it’s way over the top. But I don’t think it has anything to do with this issue that’s being discussed by my colleagues across the aisle.

Yes?

QUESTION: Leader Boehner, do you think that in light of the fact that the Obama administration was wrong in its economic forecasts and the economy is doing worse than they said it would be without the stimulus, do House Republicans and you personally, do you feel vindicated in your opposition to the stimulus, since you took a lot of heat for it?

BOEHNER: Now listen, at the end of day, what we want is to get the economy going again. We believed then, as we do now, that the best way to get the economy going again would be to allow American families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn.

Our projections, again by Dr. Christina Romer, using her model, would be that we would have created twice as many jobs at half the cost. Given the fact that unemployment continues to rise, we probably could have created 10 times as many jobs as they have, because their plan is not working at all.

Yes?

QUESTION: Yesterday in an e-mail, you made it clear that you would make a pledge to Americans that you would read the entire health care reform bill before voting on it, as well as making it available to the public at least 72 hours before (inaudible).

BOEHNER: No, I asked -- I asked my colleagues to go sign a petition at Letfreedomring.org that has this commitment.

QUESTION: (inaudible) the idea that you hadn’t read any of the bills that were (inaudible) possibility of making the health care reform bill available to the public. What’s your reaction (inaudible)?

BOEHNER: They don’t want people to read this. They might find out how ridiculous it is. If you’ve watched how they’ve brought these major bills to the floor, they bring them to the floor. They bring in big amendments in the dead of night, and pass it before anyone has any clue what’s there. Because as we found out when I went through the 316-page amendment that was filed at 3:09 a.m., members were appalled at what was just in the amendment.

BOEHNER: And I didn’t even get through the whole amendment. Can you imagine what the rest of the bill looked like?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

BOEHNER: I will.

QUESTION: Mr. Boehner, (inaudible) national intelligence, Democrats are pushing for a change in the avail, all members being (inaudible). The Obama administration wants to see this (inaudible). So what’s your position on this?

BOEHNER: I think that the catfight going on within the Democrat Party can continue.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: But do you have a position -- beyond that, do you have a position on who should be briefings (inaudible)?

BOEHNER: I do. And the speaker and I, along with Majority Leader Reid and Leader McConnell have had this conversation with our intelligence professionals and the White House, going back some year and a half or so. And there is a protocol in place. And I think the protocol that the leaders have agreed to, along with the previous administration, is an appropriate one.

QUESTION: How do you like (inaudible)?

(LAUGHTER)

BOEHNER: Not bad. I’m not used to having this much room, although it is nice having you much further away from me.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: What’s -- exactly -- can you explain (inaudible) with more depth here about this multiplier effect for Romer’s that you’re saying would have allowed more jobs for you guys’ bill and (inaudible) and how you apply it to the -- to the...

BOEHNER: When we used Dr. Romer’s economic model for our stimulus proposal, we used the most conservative assumptions and the most conservative multipliers when we did it.

And I do believe that the same -- we did the same when it came to developing the estimate of how many American jobs would be lost as a result of their health care proposal.

But this isn’t hard -- this isn’t hard to figure out. When you raise the cost of employment, guess what? You get less employees. And there’s no question that their proposal raises the cost to employers to have employees because it requires all employers to provide health care. And if you don’t supply health care, guess what? You get taxed virtually an equivalent amount.

And so, you’re raising the cost of employment, which means that employers are going to be much more discerning about whether they should add more employees. And at a time when we’re trying to get the economy going, and when we’re trying to help create jobs in America, we don’t need to be moving policies that make it more difficult for employers to bring on new employees.

Thank you all.

END

.ETX

Jul 09, 2009 13:41 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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