January 13, 2010 Republican Leadership Conference

January 13, 2010 Republican Leadership Conference

JANUARY 13, 2010

Republican Leadership Press Conference
January 13, 2010

Participants:
- Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
- Conference Chair Mike Pence (R-IN)
- Conference Vice Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV)
- Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)

Multimedia:
Audio 

Transcript:

Conference Chair Mike Pence
 
Good morning and welcome back. House Republicans just completed our first meeting of our Conference this year and we were particularly pleased to welcome Congressman Parker Griffith at his first meeting of the House Republican Conference and I will note, for the historical record, that he was the first Member to arrive for the meeting which says something about his commitment to our principles and commitment to our conference and we welcomed him with open arms and with a standing ovation.
 
Now on to the policy. As Democrats struggle to put together a government takeover of health care behind closed doors, House Republicans have one message for the American people: ‘This fight ain't over.' The President of the United States should keep his word to the American people and ensure the public's right to know and bring the CSPAN cameras into these backroom negotiations immediately. It is simply wrong for legislation, that will not just affect 20 percent of our economy, it is simply wrong for legislation that will affect 100 percent of the American people for generations to come to be cobbled together behind closed doors by one party, one White House and a group of special interests. The American people deserve a seat at the table and House Republicans are determined to fight for the public's right to know.
 
But beyond that, we're calling on the American people. The holidays are behind us. The challenges to our security that emerged on Christmas Day, we're dealing with. But right now is the moment for every American who cherishes freedom, who cherishes the ability to choose their own doctor, who still believes that we can create health care reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government, to let their voice be heard. House Republicans will take to the floor, will take to committees, will take to the airwaves and will take to our districts to encourage every American to let their voice be heard. This fight ain't over.
 
Conference Vice Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers
 
Good morning, everyone. Happy New Year. The Democrats are definitely committed to moving forward on their radical health care reform bill that will overhaul 1/6th of our economy and hurt every American. Both the House and Senate bills with cut Medicare, will increase premiums for individuals, will raise taxes on small businesses and will actually jeopardize the high quality of health care that we enjoy in this country. The polls are clear. You know, the more people learn about this bill, the more they oppose it and that opposition only continues to grow. And now, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid have decided to negotiate, behind closed doors, this final bill and Americans are fearful. This is going to be a bill that is really by and for special interests, rather than in the best interests of the American people.
 
There is a better way and we have introduced legislation that is focused on free market and health care reforms that will increase access and will actually save money for everyone without raising the deficit. Now, the good news is that it's not too late for us to pass a health care bill that the American people are demanding and that they deserve. The question is whether or not the Democrat leaders are willing to work in a new spirit of cooperation to make that happen.
 
Rep. Vern Buchanan
 
Vern Buchanan from Florida.  I introduced a sunshine resolution about thirty days ago.  Today I will be introducing a discharge petition that we hope to get to the floor for a vote.  Being in Florida, we have the toughest sunshine laws in the country.  You can't - as a city-county commissioner or a state representative - go in the backroom and have a deal.  Everything has got to be out in the public.  That's what we're fighting for here.  We need to bring some sunshine from Florida into Washington.  You're going to have a few people basically up here deciding the fate of 300 million people, and you're talking about tax increases, you're talking about a district like mine that I have 300,000 senior citizens - they're very concerned about these cuts to Medicare.  And this shouldn't be something we get jammed down our throat, a 3,000 page bill and two or three days to look at it.  The President had suggested openness and transparency eight different times, you've all heard that.  He said to bring CSPAN in. CSPAN has agreed to come in. It just makes sense.
 
As I said earlier, this isn't about Democrat or Republican, this is about the American people.  The American people have the right to know what's going on, especially on something that's going to impact everybody whether you're 2 or 102.  So we're going to continue to fight.  As they said earlier, this fight is not over.  We're calling on the American people to get involved and get engaged in this battle.  And it's with their help and their effort, and I can tell you in my district to which a Sarasota, Bradenton, and that part of the country we have 65 to 67 percent that don't like the health care bill, and many of them, 50 percent or more, are very passionate about it.  I've had many seniors tell me over the last month or so, and we've done a lot of town hall meetings, ‘Medicare is not perfect, but it's not bad.  Why don't you go and fix the 16 percent of the people that are not happy about what's going on?  Fix their health care bill.'
 
But at the end of the day, this is about the American people being in the room and the press being there so we can find out what special interests are at the table.  And again, I just want to say I appreciate the opportunity and I hope that you can help us get this message out.  We will file that discharge petition today.  I hope to get Democrats involved just as well as Republicans.  I know a lot of them feel the same that the American people need to be involved.  Thank you.
 
Rep. Shelly Moore Capito
 
Hi, I'm Shelley Moore Capito, I represent the state of West Virginia, and I join with my colleagues, I particularly like Congressman Buchanan's transparency issue with the health care bill because as we've bumped along here through the Christmas vacation, we've noticed that unemployment is actually worse than it was a year ago.  The stimulus package has not created the jobs.  I think I said the last time I was speaking to you all that the largest zip code of job creation or saved in my district is the state capitol, and I don't think that is the way to grow ourselves out of a recession.
 
If you talk about transparency in the health care debate, I think one of the issues that hasn't been talked about boldly enough or with enough honesty is what is the cost of this health care bill to our individual states?  And I am from a very Democratic state, Democratic governor and everyone else there is of the opposition party, but when I asked my Democratic governor to give me a frank assessment of what the Medicaid costs are going to be for West Virginia for this bill, we got the numbers back yesterday, and it's staggering.  If the House bill were to go through, the cost to the state of West Virginia would be $725 million, additional cost.  This is at a time when our own state budget in West Virginia right now is looking at a $93 million deficit. They can't pay now the cost of Medicaid, an additional $700 million to a small state like West Virginia is a staggering figure. If the Senate bill were to pass, the figures are less. $150 million and one of the reasons that is because it doesn't kick in until 2017 and the figures that I'm giving you go to the year 2019. That's a hidden cost to the health care bill that we're not seeing up here that's going to be passed onto West Virginia taxpayers, Florida taxpayers, and others who are going to have either a cut in service or raising in their taxes so that the governors can meet the obligations that we would be putting on them in this health care bill. So I'm going to be talking about that a lot in my own individual state as I think you'll see quite a lot of other Members.
 
Quite candidly, I had a friend of mine from Nebraska come up to me, I mentioned this in Conference today, about the cost of my state of West Virginia.  And my friend from Nebraska said, ‘Do you have those figures from Nebraska?'  I went ‘Well, I can't get those other figures' and he went, ‘Oh, that's right, we don't have any figures in Nebraska.'  Remember, this is what Senator Nelson in the Senate exempted his own state from in that bill to get his vote, and you can see why.  The numbers are eye-popping.  So with that, I hope we shed the light, show the transparency, and really reveal the actual cost to every single taxpayer across the country.
 
Republican Whip Eric Cantor

Good Morning.

Having just returned from winter break, our Members have listened to their constituents over the last month. The message has been very clear - the American people want to see the agenda being proposed by this White House and the Majority in this Congress stopped because it does not work, it does not produce the results that the American people had expected.

And for us, that starts with standing up and defeating this health care bill. This health care bill can be defeated. We just spent the past hour going over our strategy and how we can do everything we can to stop this health care bill. We're looking at 37 Democrats who are in districts that are particularly upset and vulnerable to the provisions of this health care bill. We're going to go about the next week to two weeks - whenever it is - doing whatever we can to bring the Members in the middle on the other side over to us in opposition to this healthcare bill. Frankly, the choice is very clear for the Democratic members on the other side who sit in these seats that reflect a much more center-right America. The choice for them is: Are they going to be with the people or are they going to be with Pelosi?