Congressman Pence Discusses Jobs and Democrat Health Care Bill on MSNBC’s Morning Joe

Congressman Pence Discusses Jobs and Democrat Health Care Bill on MSNBC’s Morning Joe

JULY 22, 2009



To view this clip, click here.

Transcript below:
 
[Clip of Hoyer on the House floor]
 
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Wow, ok then. Here with us now is the man on the other end of that, Republican representative from Indiana, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, Congressman Mike Pence.
 
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Getting tough down there on the floor in the peoples' House.
 
BRZEZINSKI: Mike is pushing for a delay in President Obama's timeline in health care reform, which you could argue makes sense.
 
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense but it upsets Steny. What was the back and forth between you and Steny Hoyer?
 
REP. MIKE PENCE: Good morning, guys. Well the back and forth yesterday was that House Republicans took to the floor and held the floor for about three and a half hours to ask the question, Joe, that I think the majority of Americans are asking today and that is "where are the jobs?" I mean, it's been about six months since they passed the so-called ‘stimulus' bill and this economy has lost more than two million jobs since they passed that legislation. They passed a budget-busting budget that'll double the national debt in five years, triple it in ten. They just passed a national energy tax, and now they want to pass a government takeover of health care with nearly a trillion dollar tax increase. We're just trying to get Congress to focus on the issue that most Americans are focusing on and that is getting this economy moving again.
 
SCARBOROUGH: Mike Barnicle always says the issues are jobs, jobs and jobs but you didn't expect the stimulus bill to create jobs this quickly, did you? That's not realistic.
 
REP. PENCE: Well, we don't expect the stimulus bill to work in the broadest possible terms. Borrowing a trillion dollars from China and spreading it around the economy in the next couple years is probably going to have some short-term positive effect on the margins. But Joe, you know, Kennedy knew, and Reagan knew, and you know how you get this economy moving and that is fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C. and tax relief for working families, small businesses and family farms. That's the kind of stimulus that we need to pass, not this massive government give away. For heaven's sake, let's not raise taxes on the heels of a national energy tax; let's not raise a trillion dollars in taxes to pay for a government takeover of health care.
 
SCARBOROUGH: Mike, you know, I am not an economist, and now many people watching the show may believe that I am one, but Mike, even I know you don't raise taxes on energy and you don't raise taxes on small business while the economy is in a free fall.
 
MIKE BARNICLE: My wife does not allow me to have a checking account, and I know that.
 
REP. PENCE: Truthfully, my view as a Conservative, Joe, like you - I don't think raising taxes is ever a good idea but for heaven's sakes, in the worst recession in the last 25 years, a national energy tax? And now, did you see what Charlie Rangel said this morning?
 
SCARBOROUGH: What is that?
 
REP. PENCE: He said that nobody - it's in the Drudge Report - he said nobody wants to tell the Speaker that she is moving too fast, and nobody wants to blankety blank tell the president that he's moving too fast. You know what, if you're raising taxes too fast for Charlie Rangel, you may want to switch to decaf. Come on!
 
BARNICLE: Every time people talk about the health care reform legislation that's in the House and the Senate, they talk about how we've got to eliminate the waste and the fraud and the duplication. It's almost by rote that they talk about it. My question to you is, if waste, fraud, and duplication have been existent in the health care system for years - where have been the people who were charged with investigating this waste, fraud and duplication? What have they been doing? Sleeping at the switch?
 
REP. PENCE: Probably. It's probably a fair critique, Mike. I don't think, under Republican control, we did near enough in the area of oversight while there was a Republican president in the White House. But remember, the waste and fraud and abuse mostly occurs in those public systems of Medicaid, in particular, we see billion dollars of fraud, and now the president is insisting on a new government-run insurance option for all Americans. The reality is, if you think we have waste, fraud and abuse now in Medicaid, wait until we expand a Medicaid-style system to every single American - the bureaucracy and the waste will be mind boggling.
 
SCARBOROUGH: It's getting interesting on Capitol Hill. Good luck.
 
REP. PENCE: Thank you, guys.