GOP Leader Blog
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Posted by
Michael Ricci
on
November 22, 2010
It’s now been five days since White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that President Obama supports “an outright ban on earmarks” after questions were raised as to whether that was in fact the case. Unfortunately, the president has yet to call on Democratic Leaders to follow House and Senate Republicans in adopting an earmark ban in the 112th Congress. Of course, it’s not hard to decipher the president’s hesitation, what with Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offering “no apologies” for his support of earmarking as we know it. For her part, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has fallen silent on earmarks despite declaring in July 2006, “‘I’d get rid of all of them. None of them is worth the skepticism, the cynicism the public has . … and the fiscal irresponsibility of it.”
Republicans are listening to the people and standing firm on the need to take this and other critical steps to restore public trust. Shortly after House Republicans adopted an earmark ban for the 112th Congress, Speaker-designate John Boehner said, “This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.” It’s now up to President Obama to prove his support for an earmark ban is serious, and not just post-election me-tooism designed to make up for nearly two years of runaway spending. Republicans are listening to the people and standing firm on the need to take this and other critical steps to restore public trust. Shortly after House Republicans adopted an earmark ban for the 112th Congress, Speaker-designate John Boehner said, “This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.” It’s now up to President Obama to prove his support for an earmark ban is serious, and not just post-election me-tooism designed to make up for nearly two years of runaway spending.
Posted by
Katie Boyd
on
November 10, 2010
From the moment last week’s election results were in, it was clear that Democrats – rendered tone deaf by denial – did not receive the message sent by millions of Americans. And in an op-ed in today’s USA Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) confirms that Democrats still aren’t listening to the American people who are demanding a smaller, less costly and more accountable government focused on helping our economy create jobs. While Speaker Pelosi claims credit for Democrats’ many “accomplishments” over the past four years, the facts show that Democrats’ policies have destroyed jobs, failed to lower health care costs, and failed to stop Washington Democrats’ out-of-control spending spree: SPEAKER PELOSI: “President Obama and this Congress were job creators from Day One, saving the country from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.”
SPEAKER PELOSI: “Our Democratic members took tough votes to support America’s working families.”
SPEAKER PELOSI: “We are proud to have passed historic health insurance reform that includes a Patient’s Bill of Rights to lower health costs and improve quality.”
SPEAKER PELOSI: “We did all of this while restoring fiscal discipline to the Congress by making the pay-as-you-go rules the law of the land.”
Posted by
GOP Leader Press Office
on
November 04, 2010
In an interview today with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) made clear that Republicans will fight to stop all of the coming tax hikes because tax hikes will kill jobs, and stopping them all is the will of the American people. “I am not going to compromise on my principles nor am I going to compromise the will of the American people,” Boehner said. “To the extent that the president wants to work with us on reducing the size, scope and the intrusion of the federal government, we're willing to work with him.”
An excerpt from the interview, airing tonight on Fox News: BAIER: First, let's start with the news of the day. The president is signaling he will be willing to make the middle class tax cuts permanent, but perhaps only extend temporarily the tax cuts for top earners for one or two years. Would you accept a temporary extension on the top tax cuts? BOEHNER: Bret, in our Pledge to America, we made clear that we believe that all the current tax rates should be extended for all Americans and permanently. And the American people spoke on election night. They elected Republicans in droves. And what we're going to fight for is -- is for all the current rates to be extended. We don't want to increase taxes on any Americans. BAIER: So there's no compromise here? BOEHNER: We do not want to raise taxes on any Americans. BAIER: I know. The president is saying he wants to reach out, he wants to meet with you, he thinks there could be a deal here. You're saying no. BOEHNER: Listen, Democrats still control the Congress for the next two months. And I suspect we're going to have a whale of a fight over taxes and spending. The American people spoke on election night. It was their opportunity to send Washington a message. And they -- the message they sent was stop the tax hikes and stop the spending. BAIER: So in the lame duck session, you expect some kind of deal to be worked out? BOEHNER: I have no idea. BAIER: Because you're not in control... BOEHNER: We're not -- we're not in control. And I've not been party to any of these conversations. I'm for extending all of the current tax rates for all Americans. BAIER: Do you see elements, when you do take control, that you can compromise with the president on? BOEHNER: Bret, I am not going to compromise on my principles nor am I going to compromise the will of the American people. To the extent that the president wants to work with us on reducing the size, scope and the intrusion of the federal government, we're willing to work with him. The American people spoke pretty loudly the other night. They want us to stop the spending. And it's going to be our principal goal. The second goal is that they want jobs in America. And you can't have jobs in America when -- when you have all this uncertainty coming out of Washington. And when you extend tax rates for a year, you leave all the uncertainty hanging out there. People are going to invest. Like me, when I ran my small business, they want some certainty about what the future is going to look like so they can calculate a return on investments. You can't do that by these temporary extensions and other gimmicks.
Posted by
on
October 22, 2010
Despite the Obama Administration’s massive spending binge, Vice President Joe Biden again criticized Republicans on spending. His attacks conveniently ignore the fact that this administration has added $3 trillion to the national debt, run up a $1.3 trillion deficit, and left millions of Americans asking “Where are the jobs?” As the manager of the failed ‘stimulus’ - which 68 percent of Americans believe has been “wasted” - Vice President Biden is a curious messenger for the Obama Administration’s desperate attempt to distance itself from the out-of-control spending spree that has been going on in Washington on the Democrats’ watch. As the Vice President talks about fiscal responsibility, it’s worth bearing in mind his dubious record as the manager of the Obama Administration’s failed, budget-busting economic ‘stimulus.’ The Obama Administration Claimed that the ‘Stimulus’ Would Keep Unemployment Below Eight Percent and Create Millions of Jobs:
Vice President Biden Later Admitted that the White House’s ‘Stimulus’ Projections Were Wrong: In June 2009, Vice President Biden Said That “Everyone Guessed Wrong” on the Economy, Denied That the Stimulus Was Sold on the Eight Percent Unemployment Promise. NBC’s David Gregory: “But here is the reality, and that is when this report was issued by your economic advisor and Dr. Romer from the White House, the assertion was that you could keep unemployment at 8 percent and then it would go down after that. In fact, it's now at 9.4 percent. Was it oversold?” Vice President Biden: “No. What we did is, we took the econometric models that were used by businesses as well as academics at the time. No one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. Gregory: “But this package was sold on the premise that it would, in fact, keep unemployment at 8 percent. It's exceeded that with the recovery plan.” Vice President Biden: “No, no, it wasn't sold on that. It was sold on it would create –” Gregory: “That's what the report said, Mr. Vice President.” Vice President Biden: “No, it said it would -- what would happen was it would save or create jobs. It's doing that, it is doing that. Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate made, about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 6/14/09) Today, There Are 14.8 Million Unemployed Americans, and 2.5 Million Have Lost Their Jobs Since the ‘Stimulus’ Was Signed Into Law:
Vice President Biden Claimed the ‘Stimulus’ Would Create Jobs During the ‘Recovery Summer’:
But the Economy Continued Losing Jobs in June, July, August and September:
Vice President Biden Admitted that Stimulus Dollars Would be Wasted:
BETTER SOLUTIONS IN THE PLEDGE TO AMERICA. Republicans understand that we must do a better job of providing the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to create jobs. That is why cutting spending is a critical part of the GOP’s Pledge to America. The Pledge lays out specific proposals to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington by: cancelling unspent ‘stimulus’ funds, immediately cutting government spending to pre-‘stimulus,’ pre-bailout levels; establishing a hard cap on new discretionary spending; cutting Congress’ budget and holding weekly votes on spending cuts. Republicans will continue fighting for immediate enactment of every provision in the Pledge to America to create jobs and get the economy moving again.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
October 20, 2010
Flatly ignoring the will of the American people, Washington Democrats and President Obama have criticized the GOP’s Pledge to America, which calls for restoring fiscal sanity by cutting federal spending back to pre-“stimulus,” pre-bailout levels, saving $100 billion in the first year alone. Yet the party of “yes we can,” is saying “no, we can’t” when it comes to cutting spending – something that more than 100 economists have said is necessary to create jobs and get the American economy moving again.
Spending cuts can happen. Just look across the pond to the newly-elected British Government, which today unveiled a budget plan that would eliminate its structural deficit within four years by cutting spending back to 2008 levels. As today’s Financial Times reported: “George Osborne on Wednesday ushered in an era of public sector austerity, outlining plans for £83bn in cuts to government spending in his long awaited comprehensive spending review. Declaring that ‘today is the day where Britain steps back from the brink’ the chancellor revealed dramatic cuts to several key departments over the next four years.” The New York Times reported that “the size of government departments in London would be cut by one third,” noting that “Britain’s public deficit is among the highest among developed economies.” George Osborne, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a speech today that: We are going to bring the years of ever-rising borrowing to an end. We are going to ensure, like every solvent household in the country: that what we buy, we can afford; that the bills we incur, we have the income to meet; and that we do not saddle our children with the interest on the interest on the interest of the debts we were not ourselves prepared to pay. Tackling this budget deficit is unavoidable.Getting government to live within its means is necessary not just for the fiscal health of the country, but for economic growth and job creation as well, as Peter Wehner noted in Commentary yesterday: The goal is to slash the budget deficit from over 10 percent of GDP to almost zero in five years — and in the process to (a) reduce the ‘crowding out’ effect of big government, (b) restore market confidence in government finances, and (c) encourage private business to invest and hire people, which will in turn fuel economic growth. The cuts in public spending will probably exceed anything either Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher or President Reagan ever attempted.Today’s Wall Street Journal echoed that sentiment, noting in an editorial that “a study conducted by Gavekal Research earlier this year, which compared economic growth in the U.K. to government spending over the past 40 years. The trend was clear: The bigger the bite the government takes out of the economy, the slower the average growth rate.” Yet in Washington, Democrats continue to spend recklessly, harming job-creation. Just this week we learned that “the Administration has projected the National Debt will soar in Mr. Obama's fourth year in office to nearly $16.5-trillion in 2012. That's more than 100 percent of the value of the nation's economy and $5.9-trillion above what it was his first day on the job,” according to CBS News. In fact, since January 2009, Democrats have passed more than $3 trillion in new spending increases, with a 24% increase in non-defense discretionary spending. To create jobs, Washington needs to restore fiscal sanity to Washington and stop all the tax hikes that Democrats have planned for Jan. 1, 2011. With the Pledge to America, Republicans are listening to families and small business owners and offering a clear and positive governing agenda that addresses their highest priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending, and making government more open and accountable.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
October 15, 2010
As the economy continues to falter under the weight of Washington Democrats’ fiscal mismanagement, President Obama is being urged by his advisors to return one more time to the well of “stimulus” spending. According to a report in Market Watch today, Laura Tyson, a member of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and “a candidate to succeed Larry Summers as the Obama administration’s next director of the National Economic Council,” is making a “strong argument for more fiscal stimulus” even as she acknowledges that “our debt-to-GDP number is not on a sustainable path.”
Yet the Democrats’ record of “stimulus” spending to boost the economy is nothing short of abysmal, as the following news reports over the past few days illustrate:
With the Pledge to America, Republicans are listening to families and small business owners and offering a clear and positive governing agenda that addresses their highest priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending, and making government more open and accountable.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
October 13, 2010
This morning’s New York Times observes that “[t]his is not what a recovery is supposed to look like....Call it recession or recovery, for tens of millions of Americans, there’s little difference.” The report lays bare the extent of the recession, and the failure of Washington Democrats to encourage businesses and entrepreneurs to take risks, expand, and begin to hire again. The Times notes:
At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population. Even top Obama officials concede the unemployment rate could climb higher still.The Democrats’ “summer of recovery” has become the American people’s autumn of discontent. A visualization of the economic rut in which Washington Democrats have left millions of Americans (more than two million more are jobless since the “stimulus” passed) can be seen in the chart below, which “shows job changes in the most recession compared with previous ones, with the black line representing the current downturn.” Courtesy of the New York Times’ Economix blog:
In the wake of last week’s disappointing jobs report, which saw the economy lose 95,000 jobs in the month of September, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) once again called on Democrats to immediately enact the GOP’s Pledge to America to end the job-killing uncertainty plaguing small businesses and allow these job creators to get back to growing their businesses and hiring new workers. Leader Boehner noted: With the Pledge to America, Republicans have offered a clear and positive plan to help end economic uncertainty, create jobs, and make America more competitive. With the American people asking ‘where are the jobs?,’ Republicans’ blueprint for job creation starts with stopping all of the looming tax hikes and ending Washington’s out-of-control spending spree. Make no mistake, our economy will ultimately recover, but it will do so because of the hard work and entrepreneurship of the American people, not more of the same wasteful Washington spending and job-killing tax hikes and mandates.The GOP’s Pledge to America includes specific proposals to spur job creation and boost the struggling economy by stopping all the looming tax hikes, cutting spending immediately, reining in red tape, repealing ObamaCare’s job-killing ‘1099 mandate,’ and taking other steps needed to reform the way Washington works. Republicans are listening to the American people, and will continue fighting to implement the Pledge in its entirety.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
October 05, 2010
President Obama and Vice President Biden have been crisscrossing the country to defend the Democrats’ failed economic agenda, facing increasingly dissatisfied Americans who are asking “where are the jobs?” Meanwhile, Republicans have been listening to the American people, unveiling a Pledge to America that emphasizes the need to aggressively cut federal spending and stop the coming tax hikes in order to help the nation’s economy get back to creating jobs.
The President may complain about “misinformation” regarding his economic policies, but the American people know snake oil when they see it. The following chart, courtesy of the Ways &Means Republican staff, illustrates that no amount of traveling can change the 9.6 percent unemployment rate:
September probably offered little relief in the nation's vexing unemployment problem, setting the stage for more Fed intervention that experts give only dubious prospects for success. Economists expect Friday's jobs numbers to be a wash...that probably means zero jobs growth…The reasons behind the poor jobs outlook are myriad, experts say: The tax climate remains uncertain as November's election prospects hang in the balance; the government is continuing to peel off Census workers; and while double-dip recession fears are coming off the table, belief that the recovery will be slow and painful is not.Any wonder nearly seven in 10 Americans say that “the money the federal government has spent on the economic stimulus has been mostly wasted,” according to a survey out today by the Washington Post/ABC News. Meanwhile, in Washington, Democrats are running scared, bolting town without stopping all the tax hikes and helping end the economic uncertainty that economists say is hampering job-creation. As House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) noted last week, “A vote to adjourn this Congress without an up-or-down vote to stop all the tax hikes is a vote to raise taxes and destroy more jobs. American families and small businesses deserve better. This Congress has a chance to help end uncertainty for families and small businesses by stopping all the tax hikes set to take effect on January 1. If Democratic Leaders leave town without stopping all of the tax hikes, they are turning their backs on the American people.”
Posted by
Republican Leader Press Office
on
September 25, 2010
All across America, Republicans are talking about the GOP’s Pledge to America and its positive solutions designed to create jobs, cut spending, and reform government. And even as a defensive President Obama gives the Pledge greater currency by attacking it, the reality is the Pledge to America is gaining support (see New York Times story on increasing support among conservatives). Here’s just a sampling of media stories highlighting the work of GOP members:
In today’s weekly GOP address (video here), House GOP Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) “touted his party’s ‘Pledge to America’ as a governing agenda that would create jobs and restore the nation’s trust in Congress.” “A Pledge to America” can be viewed and downloaded at http://pledge.gop.gov. The Pledge is also on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/PledgeToAmerica.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
September 21, 2010
Yesterday, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the recession “over.” According to the Wall Street Journal, “the end of the recession occurred in June 2009.” But with nearly 15 million people out of work and a 9.5 percent unemployment rate, Americans are left asking if this is a recovery, then “where are the jobs?”
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) noted earlier this year that: The signs of life in our economy are little comfort to the millions of families and small businesses asking ‘where are the jobs?’ President Obama signed the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ into law last year with promises of massive job growth, not a jobless recovery. Washington Democrats’ agenda of more spending, higher taxes, and bigger government is only making it harder to create jobs and restore confidence in our economy.The following chart, from the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog, shows how jobless the “recovery” has been:
At the same time, companies are sitting on piles of cash, fearful to invest “because of the uncertain economic climate” that Washington Democrats have created, as the New York Times Economix blog points out. That has resulted in companies which are “extremely reluctant to use some of that cash reservoir to start hiring again,” as the following chart, courtesy of the New York Times, makes clear:
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