John Boehner 8TH DISCTRICT OF OHIO

In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett following remarks to the Paul G. Peterson Foundation’s Fiscal Summit, Congressman John Boehner said there’s no reason to wait until we reach the debt limit to enact real spending cuts and reforms – the American people are ready, Republicans are ready – “let’s go.”

The only stumbling blocks are President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate who appear afraid – or unwilling – to seriously address America’s economic challenges. As Burnett pointed out, top Democrats are already criticizing what Stanford economist John B. Taylor dubbed the “Boehner principle” – that spending cuts and reforms (not tax hikes) exceed any debt limit increase – as a “line in the sand.” Boehner responded:

“It is a line in the sand because Washington has kicked the can down the road, kicked the can down the road, kicked the can down the road and the American people think we're crazy.  They're re-- ready for Washington to take action.  I'm here.  I'm ready to do it.  Let's go.”

Boehner explained how the tax hikes demanded by Democrats would only do more damage to our economy and put more people out of work. Instead, Boehner said “We've gotta have real economic growth and we have to have real controls on spending.”

The House already started by passing a responsible budget that cuts spending and preserves our biggest entitlement programs for our children and grandchildren. And last week, the House voted to reduce the deficit by additional $242.8 billion while protecting our troops and their families. But bills like these and others that create a better environment for job growth are being blocked by Senate Democrats.

Click here to watch and read Boehner’s full remarks from yesterday.

This morning, congressional leaders will visit the White House for a meeting with President Obama.  Between our nation’s struggling economy, our booming debt, still painfully high gas prices, and the “fiscal time bomb” set to hit at the end of this year, the American people would expect the agenda to be focused on tackling the big issues. The Associated Press this morning, however, reports that the President plans to use this meeting as an opportunity to tout his five-point, to-do list for Congress – also known as his Post-it note plan.

According to the Associated Press, the President wants to push the leaders to advance tax breaks for small businesses – a worthy goal. In fact, earlier this year the House passed a 20 percent tax break for small businesses (as defined by the Small Business Administration).  A reduced tax burden on American entrepreneurs and small business owners is something Republicans would be happy to work with the President to provide.  But it doesn’t seem as though finding common ground is the President’s goal.  When the House passed its small business tax cut, the President responded with a veto threat.

In reality, Republicans have already produced a much lengthier to-do list than the President’s Post-it note agenda.  Over the last 18 months, the House has passed more than two dozen jobs bills that are still awaiting Senate action and presidential leadership to get moving.  Over and over again, it has been the House that has led, passing legislation, and working to address the priorities of the American people.  The House has advanced a jobs and energy agenda, passed a budget (twice), passed legislation to keep interest rates for students low, passed a plan to stave off cuts to our military the president’s own Defense Secretary says would be “devastating,” and will soon pass a plan to prevent the biggest tax hike in American history.

What has been missing is presidential leadership – and presidential plans.  So, at today’s meeting Republican leaders would like to hear what the President proposes to address these pressing issues.  

• How does the President propose dealing with ALL of the tax increases set to hit the American people at the end of the year?  
• Is the President calling for a clean debt limit increase?
• When will the President urge the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass a budget so that we can start to get a hold on our skyrocketing debt?  
• When does the President plan to increase American energy production to help address high gas prices?  
• When will the President approve the Keystone pipeline so that energy resources from our Canadian friends does not end up flowing to China instead of America?
• How does the President propose paying for an extension of student loan rates that will pass both chambers?  
• How does the President, as Commander in Chief, propose to ensure our military is not hollowed out by automatic sequestration cuts?  

A Post-it note makes for a cute gimmick, but the American people are expecting us to think a little bit bigger. That will be the goal of Republican leaders today.

While President Obama was telling Congressional leaders he wants to raise the debt limit without any spending cuts or reforms, Senate Democrats were preparing to reject his budget – unanimously.

This is the second year in a row the Democratic-controlled Senate unanimously opposed the president’s unserious budget (0-99 this year). And it was almost two months ago that his budget failed to win a single vote in the House (0-414). Altogether, 513 elected lawmakers have opposed it.

Of course – it’s been three years since Senate Democrats offered a budget of their own. In that time, we’ve faced an unemployment rate above eight percent and back-to-back-to-back trillion-dollar deficits.

These failures have left families stuck – jobs are scarce, prices are rising, and wages are stagnant, but neither the White House nor Senate Democrats have a serious plan to address our challenges. Instead, they’re focused on fake fights and political gimmicks, and are pushing for higher taxes that would make it even harder for small businesses to hire new workers.

This is why Congressman John Boehner jumpstarted the conversation yesterday about addressing the spending-driven debt that threatens job creation and economic growth. The Speaker outlined a number of ways to put America back on the path to prosperity. With the national debt nearing $16 trillion, the debt limit approaching, and the largest tax hike in history looming, Boehner said “we shouldn’t wait” -- we need to “confront our challenges now while we still have the ability to do so.”

House Republicans already adopted a responsible budget that promotes job growth by cutting spending and protecting America’s entitlement programs for future generations. Last week, the House voted to reduce the deficit by an additional $242.8 billion while protecting our troops and their families.

But that’s not all. The House has passed nearly 30 jobs bills that are being blocked by Senate Democrats.  While those bipartisan bills gather dust, Republicans have also worked with the White House and Democrats to pass - in a bipartisan way - jobs bills such as the JOBS Act, a veterans hiring bill, three trade agreements, patent reform,  legislation repealing the IRS withholding tax on job creators, and more.

Republicans are serious about addressing America’s challenges and creating a better environment for private-sector job growth. Learn more at budget.House.gov and jobs.GOP.gov.

Today, Congressman Boehner met with eighth grade students from Piqua Catholic School in Piqua, OH on the steps of the Capitol.  The students asked Boehner questions about everything from his duties as Speaker of the House to whether he is a Cincinnati Reds fan.  (He confirmed, of course, that he is a big fan.) 

If you are planning a visit to our nation’s capital, please visit our ‘Visiting Washington, D.C.’ page here to request  tours.  

Senior White House officials were “involved in negotiating and approving”  a deal with the pharmaceutical industry to win its backing for a government takeover of health care that is now making it harder for small businesses to hire workers, a new House Energy & Commerce Committee memo reveals. 

The staff memo, released to the public a short while ago, is part of an ongoing investigation into what insider deals were struck in the writing of ObamaCare, and whether policy outcomes were traded for public support.  The pharmaceutical industry (PhRMA) agreement was announced with much White House fanfare in the summer of 2009 and industry lobbyists “huddled” with Democratic staffers in the final push to jam the bill through Congress.  Details of the White House’s role in the agreement and its contents were largely elusive, leading the committee to announce an investigation last year.  Its findings to date, detailed in this memo, include an e-mail from then-White House deputy chief of staff (now President Obama’s campaign manager) Jim Messina to a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry, which explicitly invokes the existence of a “deal.”

The memo also reveals that administration officials knowingly kept the House, controlled by the president’s own party at the time, out of the talks.  “I think we should have included the House in these discussions, but maybe we never would have gotten anywhere if we had,” Office of Health Reform director Nancy Ann DeParle wrote in an e-mail to a PhRMA representative.  Then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was also pivotal in securing a deal, the memo states.

The White House’s secrecy about the process extends to the agreement itself, the specifics of which were not made available to the public and news organizations.  “In the coming weeks,” the memo states, “the Committee intends to show what the White House agreed to do as part of its deal with the pharmaceutical industry and how the full details of the agreement were kept from both the public and the House of Representatives.”  

The American people will be interested in those findings, especially in light of the president’spromise to conduct public and televised health care talks.  Instead, the White House cut a string of backroom deals with special interests and reluctant lawmakers.  Mounting public unrest with the lack of transparency, and the prospect that the bill would not lower costs or protect coverage as promised, led then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to infamously pronounce, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”  

We now know the American people got a bad deal from ObamaCare, which is making it harder for small businesses across America to hire new workers.  That is why, in keeping with the Pledge to America, the House has taken nearly 30 votes to repeal, defund, and dismantle this health care law.  But what kind of deal did the White House and PhRMA get?  The Committee’s investigation is ongoing.

Is the White House asking for a clean debt limit increase with no spending cuts or reforms whatsoever?  If not, where is Washington Democrats’ serious plan to address the debt crisis that is hurting our economy and destroying jobs?  President Obama’s budget – the only Democratic plan available, since Senate Democrats have not offered a budget in three years – was defeated by the House by a vote of 414-0.  Today, the Senate is expected to vote it down again.  Because of the president’s failed economic and fiscal policies, a debt limit increase is looming again.  The alternative is default, which would be economically disastrous. 

That’s why Congressman John Boehner laid out a common-sense approach for addressing America’s debt crisis yesterday: responsible spending cuts and reforms that will put the United States on a sounder financial footing, stave off further credit downgrades, and improve the health of our economy.  Yet Democrats immediately responded by hyperventilating at the mere suggestion that Congress come together to cut spending and deal with the big economic and fiscal challenges of our time.  Here’s just a few over-the-top, hyper-partisan examples:

• “Speaker Boehner is threatening to take our nation into another manufactured crisis that will harm America’s families.” – Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Press Release, 5/15/12

• “It’s pretty clear to me that the Tea Party direction of the Republican Party is driving them over a cliff. And I would suggest that Speaker Boehner look at the long term, which is what will the Republican Party look like in the future” – Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), The Hill, 5/15/12

• “The President does not believe that the full faith and credit of the United States, its commitment to pay its bills and its obligations, should be held hostage to a political ideology.” – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, Briefing, 5/15/12

• “It is absolutely reckless to threaten that the United States will not pay its bills.” – Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), San Francisco Chronicle, 5/15/12

Only in Washington will you find “leaders” who fear addressing a problem more than the problem itself.

In reality, the only people talking about “brinkmanship” or a “standoff” are the White House, Democrats, and the Left.  The Congressman told CNN yesterday there’s no reason to wait until we reach the debt limit to enact real spending cuts and reforms – the American people are ready, Republicans are ready – “let’s go.”  

The fact remains that the president’s ‘stimulus’ spending spree has racked up more debt – more than $5 trillion in just over three years – than any president in history, including four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits.  The real questions are, what is the president’s plan and when, if ever, will he lead?

Here are key points for Speaker Boehner’s address this afternoon to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s 2012 Fiscal Summit.  Watch the full address here. 

• In remarks this afternoon to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s Annual Fiscal Summit, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will renew his commitment to the principle he set forth at the Economic Club of New York one year ago – noting that the debt limit exists to force Washington to deal with its fiscal problems, and that any increase in the nation’s debt limit must be accompanied by spending cuts and reforms larger than the amount of the debt limit hike.

• Failing to again meet this standard – dubbed the “Boehner principle” by Stanford economist John B. Taylor – in conjunction with the next debt limit increase means pushing American prosperity and job growth farther away, the Speaker will argue. 

• Instead of looking at the coming debt limit decision with a sense of dread, the Speaker will argue, we should see it for what it is: an opportunity to make needed changes that will help to put our country back on a path to prosperity and economic growth.

• Our nation's economy is stuck in large part because it is stuck with debt, the Speaker will note, and the solution to what ails our economy is not more government – it's the American people.  Pro-growth policies – stopping the tax hike that is scheduled to hit small businesses on January 1, cutting spending, and reforming the tax code – represent the road to prosperity, opportunity and lasting job creation.

• Under the policies of President Obama, our economy continues to struggle to create jobs; the U.S. Senate, controlled by the president's own party, has not passed a budget in more than three years; and the United States has lost its gold-plated triple-A credit rating for the first time in its history. 

• Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea championed by the president that increasing government spending will generate economic growth.  A Winston Group/New Models survey conducted earlier this year found that only 30% of Americans believe increasing government spending will generate economic growth, and 66% do not believe increasing government spending will generate economic growth.  Americans also overwhelmingly believe our economy would be doing better with better policies in place.

• The Speaker will be clear that the U.S. House of Representatives will act before the election on legislation to stop the tax increase that is scheduled to hit American job creators on New Year's Day 2013.  He will argue that our nation's leaders should not wait until New Year’s Eve to give American job creators the confidence that they aren’t going to get hit with a tax hike on New Year’s Day.

• The House will act to stop the largest tax increase in American history, and give Congress time to work on broad-based tax reform that lowers rates for individuals and businesses while closing deductions, credits, and special carve-outs, the Speaker will note.

• With many enormous decisions looming regarding spending and taxes, Washington must use it as an opportunity to end the era of government meddling, micromanagement, and manipulation of our economy and focus instead on reforms that promote long-term economic investment, private initiative, and freedom, the Speaker will argue.  

Today, Congressman Boehner hosted an open discussion with Ohio small business leaders and job creators in Hamilton.  Boehner opened the discussion by asking the job creators what they needed to see coming out of Washington in order to encourage job creation and grow the economy, here are a few of the responses:

As reported by the West Chester Buzz, Trevor Stansbury, president and founder of a company in Loveland, told Boehner, “One of the things that is killing all of us is the uncertainty and our reluctance therefore to hire people because we don’t know what is around the corner.”

Boehner agreed with Mr. Stansbury’s concerns and replied: “This uncertainty – I have explained to the president so many times that I am blue in the face…When people get that uncertain, they sit on their money. They sit on their hands and they wait for the market or the picture to clear. Until there is more certainty out there, we are not going to see big changes in our economy.”

Laura Doerge-Roberts, president of Vinyl Max Windows in Hamilton, was among the many job creators who expressed their frustrations with ObamaCare and the threat it is posing to employer provided benefits.  As reported by WCPO, Mrs. Doerge-Roberts “told Boehner under President Obama's healthcare plan, it's more attractive for her company to violate federal law and pay a $340,000 a year fine for not providing healthcare than to provide what she called the rising costs and decreasing benefits.”

Boehner wrapped up the event by reiterating that House Republicans will continue to stay focused on job creation:

“All I can do, on the House side, is try to be responsible in governing and hope that our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol do the same and hope the President maybe comes back off the campaign trail and works with Democrats and Republicans to get things done that the American people expect us to get done.”

If you are in the Cincinnati area, tune into your local news tonight to catch their coverage of the event.

More from Congressman Boehner’s Discussion with Job Creators here:

• Cincinnati’s WCPO: Speaker Boehner Hears Concerns of Local Business Owners (VIDEO)
• Cincinnati’s WLWT: Boehner Meets with Area Small Business Owners (VIDEO)
• Cincinnati’s Local 12 – WKRC: John Boehner Speaks at Hamilton Business About Jobs (VIDEO)  
•  West Chester Buzz: Boehner Listens to Small Business Owners in Hamilton
•  Hamilton Journal News: U.S. House Speaker Visits Butler County Company