Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO) wrote a guest post for Townhall today. See an excerpt: We can all agree that health care costs in America are out of control and coverage and care must be made more affordable, and I remain committed to making sure that any health care reform lowers costs without undermining quality of care and protects the important r [...]  More

From the Senate Communications Center: NBC’S CHUCK TODD: “Republicans Were Seen 10 Times More Prepared For This Summit Than The Democrats Were.” (MSNBC’s “Hardball,” 2/26/10) NEW YORK MAGAZINE’S JOHN HEILEMANN: “Did They [Republicans] Beat Expectations? I Think They Did In That Regard. They Came Acr [...]  More

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Many conservative bloggers covered yesterday's health care summit between Democrats and Republicans. We wanted to share a few of our favorite posts, as conservative bloggers have helped make the Republican case on health care online this year. Powerline One of the problems for President Obama may have been that he had to take on all comers without [...]  More

Democrats Collectively Talked For More Than Twice As Long As Republicans DEMOCRATS (Including President Obama): 233 MINUTES OR NEARLY 4 HOURS REPUBLICANS: 110 MINUTES OR 1 HOUR 50 MINUTES PRESIDENT OBAMA ALONE: 119 MINUTES OR 1 HOUR AND 59 MINUTES  More

House Republican Conference Vice-Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers published a guest blog post at BlogHer regarding health care today. See an excerpt here: We as a nation are currently looking at cost drivers in health insurance and a big part of that is that people are not allowed to buy the insurance they want.  They are forced to either buy [...]  More

From Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: “Mr. Camp, You Said That The Medicare Cuts In This Bill Cut Benefits For Seniors. They Do Not.” (Speaker Pelosi, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10)   CBO: Medicare Cuts Could “Reduce Access To Care Or Diminish The Quality Of [...]  More

From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: Senate Democrats Said It Would Be “An Outrage,” “A Nonstarter,” “A Real Mistake,” “Very Ill-Advised,” “The Worst” REP. JOHN DINGELL (D-MI): “I’m Curious, Why In The Name Of Common Sense Ar [...]  More

Today’s Gallup Poll Shows 52% Of Americans Oppose Reconciliation To Pass Health Care PRESIDENT OBAMA: “You know, this issue of reconciliation has been brought up. Again I think the American people aren't always all that interested in procedures inside the Senate.  I do think they want a vote on how we’re going to move this [...]  More

We are coming to the end of today's health care summit. One of the most compelling speakers today was Congressman Paul Ryan (WI), who clearly explained the fundamental difference between the Republican and Democrat agenda on health care. That main difference is this: The American people do not want this government takeover of heatlh care and if yo [...]  More

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: “I am always reluctant after being here 37 years to tell people what the American people think. I think it requires a little bit of humility to be able to know what the American people think. And I don’t.” (Vice President Biden, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10) WHAT BIDEN SHOULD KNOW: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OPPOSE [...]  More

CBO Never Stated Deficit Projections In Second Ten Years REP. XAVIER BECCERA (D-CA): “The Congressional Budget Office, The Referee, Not Political Parties, The Referee, Said That These Bills Reduce The Deficit In The Succeeding Years After The First Ten Years By Over A Trillion Dollars.” (Rep. Becerra, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10)   [...]  More

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From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: "Unless We Bend That Cost Curve, We're In Trouble." (Vice President Joe Biden, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10) CMS On Senate Bill: “This Bill Would Increase [Health Expenditures] By An Estimated Total Of $222 Billion” CMS: & [...]  More

Courtesy of the Senate Republican Policy Committee: In talking about the need to “broaden the insurance pool,” the President is advocating forcing individuals to buy “government-approved” coverage.  Of course, in a January 2008 debate, Senator Obama asked what then-Senator Clinton what would happen if people cannot aff [...]  More

From the House Republican Energy and Commerc Committee: Under the Republican proposal to allow Americans to buy health insurance across state lines, a family in Massachusetts, which has already adopted many of the health reform policies in Democrats’ bills, could see its health insurance premiums reduced by over 61 percent if they were allow [...]  More

From Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: PRESIDENT OBAMA: “If We’re Listening To Each Other … We Might Be Able To Make Some Progress.” “And it strikes me that if we've got an open mind, if we're listening to each other, if we're not engaging sort of the tit for tat and try [...]  More

Rep. Peter Roskam (IL) wrote a piece for Politico today. Roskam used to work with Obama on the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee. Please see the following excerpt: Mr. President: Business in Washington doesn't have to be this way. You need not be pushed to the left and you can work across the aisle like you have in the past.   That is what [...]  More

Courtesy of the Senate Policy Committee: The President just claimed that the new Washington-approved standards set by federal bureaucrats would apply ONLY to individual plans on the exchange. However, the President’s own proposal would extend new mandates to ALL policies, including “grandfathered” insurance plans.  That will [...]  More

From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: “Not Factually Accurate” Vs. “Yes, I’m Paying 10% To 13% More”   PRESIDENT OBAMA: “What The Congressional Budget Office Is Saying Is … Yes, I’m Paying 10% To 13% More Because Instead Of Buying An Apple, I&rs [...]  More

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: “Now, The, What We’ve Done Is We’ve Tried To Take Every Single Cost Containment Idea That’s Out There.  Every Proposal That Health Care Economists Say Will Reduce Health Care Costs, We’ve Tried To Adopt In The Various Proposals.” (Pres. Obama, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10) “Oba [...]  More

Courtesy of the Senate Republican Policy Committee: Here is a list of new boards, bureaucracies, and programs created in the 2,733 page Senate health care bill, which serves as the framework for President Obama’s health proposal:   1.       Grant program for consumer assistance offices (Section 1002, p. 37) [...]  More

President Obama today claimed that his health care plan would allow people to keep their current health care plans. He's said this before and admitted that it may not be true. Due to the way the plan is structured, it is misleading to say folks can keep their plans. American Spectator reporter Philip Klein breaks it down here: All of the new requi [...]  More

From Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner:   More

From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: CBO And Democrat Senator Says “It Is True That Some Persons” “Would Find Their Premiums” Going Up PRESIDENT OBAMA: “It's Not Factually Accurate. Here's What The Congressional Budget Office Says. The Costs For Families For The Same [...]  More

From Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “No One Has Talked About Reconciliation.” (Sen. Reid, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10) “Reid Said… Democrats Would Use The Reconciliation Process. ‘We're Going To Have That Done In The Next 60 Days.’” [...]  More

From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: Speaker Says “We Cannot Keep Our Promises On Medicare” Without Passing A Bill That Cuts Nearly $500 Billion Out Of Medicare REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): “And I Want To Say, Because Medicare Was Mentioned, Unless We Pass This Legislation, We Canno [...]  More

From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: “[I]naction And Incrementalism Are Simply Unacceptable.”   AMERICANS AGREE WITH REPUBLICANS, WANT FRESH START ON HEALTH CARE CNN POLL: 73 Percent Of Americans Say “Lawmakers Should Work On An Entirely New Bill&rdqu [...]  More

From Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner: PRESIDENT OBAMA: “I Hope That This Isn’t Political Theater.” (President Obama, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10)   VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN On Today’s Summit: “Could Be Pure Theater.” “Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesda [...]  More

Congressman Darrell Issa wrote an op/ed for Politico today pertaining to the health care summit. See and excerpt here: Now that his yearlong partisan push for government-run health care has so far failed to produce legislative results, President Barack Obama wants Republicans to join him for another White House summit to see if he can salvage his [...]  More

House Republicans will be following today's health care summit with President Obama today on the GOP.gov blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. Be sure to check in at our Health Care Solutions web site for all the details on the Republican plan, which has been posted and CBO-scored for months. We'll feature fact checking, analysis and background [...]  More

Rep. Ron Paul (TX) wrote a piece for the Daily Caller this week. See an excerpt here: Last week marked the one year anniversary of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, or the stimulus bill, passing into law.  While the debate over its success has been focused on whether or not it is stimulating the economy and on various questionable u [...]  More

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence appeared yesterday on "Fox News Business." Watch it here:   More

Rep. Geoff Davis (KY) published his weekly column recently. See an excerpt of the piece, which discusses job loss in America. Check ou an excerpt here: February marks the one year anniversary of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unprecedented trillion-dollar stimulus package, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 200 [...]  More

From AP: Here's one point on which Democrats and Republicans agree on health care: President Barack Obama's much-touted televised summit has virtually no chance of breaking the political logjam. That means Democrats will be forced to find a way to pass an overhaul on their own or face a huge political defeat. Lawmakers from both parties suggested [...]  More

CBO has already said the President's new health care plan does not contain enough details to score in a timely manner. The White House estimates the proposal would cost $950 billion in the next ten years. Many are wondering how it is still a government takeover of health care. The Republican Study Committee published a brief tackling this question [...]  More

Rep. Doc Hastings (WA), ranking member on that Natural Resources Committee, just published a piece on The Daily Caller regarding the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009. This legislation is being voted on this afternoon. For background information on the Act, see here. Read the following excerpt from Hastings' piece: Race-based [...]  More

Rep. Paul Broun, M.D. (GA) discussed his balanced budget amendment on the House Floor today. Don't miss Broun's straight talk on President Obama's irresponsible budget plan: A few key excerpts: “They say that talk is cheap, but for hardworking Americans, the President's talk is very expensive.”   “If the President is seriou [...]  More

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks today at a House Republican leadership press conference that followed the weekly meeting of the House Republican Conference: There is no question, after two weeks home, House Republicans know that the American people want health care reform th [...]  More

From the Washington Examiner: At CPAC, Rep. Daryl Issa (CA), released the following video that shows the President didn't tell the truth about the extent of his relationship with ACORN: Bluegrass Pundit tracked down the transcripts. While campaigning for President and amid controversy over ACORN's role in fraudulent voter registration, Obama desc [...]  More

The Wall Street Journal published a scathing editorial regarding President Obama's new health care plan. See the following key phrase: "'The President's Proposal,' as the 11-page White House document is headlined, is in one sense a notable achievement: It manages to take the worst of both the House and Senate bills and combine them into something [...]  More

Rep. Dave Camp (MI), a physician, wrote a guest blog post yesterday for Pajamas Media. Please see an excerpt of "Obama Health Care Plan Still a Government Takeover": The health care plan the White House outlined this morning is not a serious attempt to address the concerns the American people have expressed about the Democrats’ bills. Nor do [...]  More

President Obama released a new health care plan today, which CBO admits cannot be scored due to lack of sufficient details. House Republicans have had a health care plan for months. It was scored by CBO in November. Yet, Democrats refuse to consider it as a viable option. You can find all the details about our health care plan here.   More

The White House made a big show of President Obama's new health care bill released today. However, CBO just announced that the bill doesn't provide necessary details that would allow them to score it. Key phrasing: "[P]reparing a cost estimate requires very detailed specifications of numerous provisions, and the materials that were released this m [...]  More

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued the following statement today after President Obama released his latest health care reform plan: House Republicans welcome any good faith effort to start over on health care reform but the bill President Obama unveiled today is just more of the same government-run ins [...]  More

Rep. Pete Sessions (TX) published a guest post on the blog, HoosierAccess, today. Please see the following excerpt: One year ago, my Republican colleagues and I saw the writing on the wall.  An economic “stimulus” package with a huge price tag would only cause record deficits and debt, and produce little if any jobs.  Republi [...]  More

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence appeared yesterday on "Meet the Press." You can find a transcript of the show here. Please see the following clips:   More

The following are excerpts of the speech to be delivered by U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, at CPAC at 11 a.m. ET this morning: “One year ago, many conservatives were sure of our principles but uncertain about our future. One year ago, it seemed that there were only a few people i [...]  More

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence will address the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today at 11a.m. EDT.  More

The Office of House Republican Whip Eric Cantor issued a video news release today that contrasts the Democrats' lofty rhetoric with the reality that their $862 billion stimulus plan has failed.   Despite their rhetoric and attempts to spin, the fact remains that the Democrats' stimulus program has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on pork, [...]  More

From the office of Congressman Phil Roe (TN): Today marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the “stimulus” package.  Even to its most ardent supporters, the so-called “stimulus” bill has been a disappointment.   Even Democratic Senator Bayh, who recently announced his retirement, said in an inter [...]  More

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued the following statement on the one-year anniversary since the so-called “stimulus” bill was signed into law by President Obama: One year later, one thing is clear: the stimulus bill has failed.  One year later, not one net job has been created as unem [...]  More

On today's anniversary of the stimulus, USA Today published an article detailing how some of that funding is actually being used for slashed government programs. According to the piece, "[President] Obama's proposed budget also includes $334 million in cuts to programs that got more than $3 billion in stimulus money. They include: • A $100 mi [...]  More

by Rep. Paul Broun, M.D. Today, President Obama will announce the building of two new nuclear reactors at a Southern Company plant in Georgia. This is a step in the right direction towards achieving energy independence in the United States, but there is much more work to be done. Increasing nuclear power is just the first step in a comprehensive, [...]  More

A new poll shows that Republicans are gaining significant political ground on the Obama agenda. Read about it here: Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats on who is trusted to deal with the country's problems and have sharply reduced several of President Obama's main political advantages, according to a new Washington Post- [...]  More

From Fox News:FOX has learned that that Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI) will retire at this end of this term.He’s scheduled a press conference later today in Grand Rapids, MI.The 76-year-old Ehlers is the only nuclear physicist serving in Congress. He formerly chaired the House Administration Committee, taking the reins from former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH [...]  More

From the office of House Leader John Boeher: Listen HERE. It turns out there is a health care plan that meets all of the “core goals” for reform that President Obama laid out at the White House today, and Republicans have offered it.  Lower costs?  Check. Preventing insurance abuses?  Check.  Making health insurance [...]  More

by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (WI) Clearly, last week’s exchange with House Republicans in Baltimore did little to curb the President’s appetite for spending American tax dollars.  As the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget reached Congress this week, American’s waited and hoped it would be in their best interest. Thi [...]  More

Rep. Bill Cassidy (LA) made the following statement: If this is a serious reversal of the Administration's policies and they are serious about cutting spending and cutting the debt, then it is a welcome first step. But this is just one of many steps the Administration must take to undo the fiscal havoc it created in its first year and begin to sol [...]  More

House Repubicans just released a video highlighting President Obama and the Democrat Administration's hypocritical views on Republican ideas. When the President visted the Republican retreat last weekend, he admitted that he had read Republican alternatives on the issues. Before his visit, the Democrat Administration consistently denied the existe [...]  More

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence appeared today on Megyn Kelly's Fox News' afternoon show. He discussed President Obama's call for bipartisanship:   More

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks today at a House Republican Leadership press conference: Like the budget the president introduced a year ago, the fiscal year 2011 budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much and the American people know it. The American people [...]  More

Now that President Obama has received and read the Republican health care alternative, he cannot deny GOP ideas anymore. However, yesterday he mischaracterized what is included in the alternative, telling a townhall audience that Republicans claimed they could "insure every American for free." This is a false statement. House Republican Whip Eric [...]  More

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in response to President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal: You know, Mr. Speaker, when I look at the president’s budget for fiscal year 2011, I think about what Albert [...]  More

by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (WY) The President’s budget proposal is politics at its worst. Just last week, the President called for fiscal restraint and vowed to go through the budget line-by-line to weed out wasteful and bloated spending. Regrettably, it seems his commitment to fiscal discipline is as thin as the teleprompter he used to read his [...]  More

Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis (WY) wil live-Tweet today's budget hearing with OMB Director Peter Orzag today at 2pm EDT. Follow the Congressman on Twitter at @cynthialummis for the latest.  More

From the office of House Republican Whip Eric Cantor: $7 million in taxpayer stimulus funds are being used to build a bridge in Thedford, Nebraska. The purpose of the bridge? Helping 168 residents avoid a 30 second wait at a local train crossing.But according to Mike Hodges, a local business owner, crossing the bridge won’t even help residen [...]  More

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence appeared this morning on Fox and Friends to discuss the GOP retreat and President Obama's speech. Watch it here:   More

Rep. Michael Turner (OH) published a piece today in the Washington Times. Please see an excerpt In sharp contrast to the previous administration, the President Barack Obama made sweeping changes to our nations missile defense portfolio last year. It slashed the Missile Defense Agency budget by $1.2 billion, reduced the planned number of missile in [...]  More

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence appeared on several TV shows following President Obama's address to the GOP Conference this weeked. Here is the first clip but find more on the Congressman's blog, linked below: Click here to access Congressman Pence's blog, including several more TV clips.  More

Many things were said this weekend at the GOP Member retreat. One significant moment passed almost unnoticed, though. President Obama, who has repeatedly claimed that his health care plan would not force anyone out of their current coverage, went back on that promise. in the following clip, the President admits that some people may not be able to [...]  More