Republican Leadership Press Conference
October 7, 2009

Participants:
- Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
- Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
- Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN)
- Rep. Mary Fallin (R-OK)

Multimedia:
Audio  |  Video

Transcript:

Conference Chairman Pence:
 
Good morning, all. We just completed the weekly meeting of the House Republican Conference this week and have a few remarks and are available for questions.
 
With a struggling war effort in Afghanistan, with 9.8 percent unemployment across this country, we are witnessing a profound lack of focus by this administration on the issues most important to the American people, namely national security and prosperity. And Republicans are on the side of the American people. There are some on the Democrat side that say that as Republicans take note of the heartbreaking numbers released last Friday on unemployment in this country, that some in our party are rooting for economic failure. Let me say emphatically, Republicans are not rooting for economic failure, we are taking note of it and demanding action by our national government. We are demanding that this administration and Democrats in Congress focus on more jobs instead of more government.  Our soldiers are in need of reinforcements. And American families and small businesses are in need of tax relief.
 
We call on the president of the United States to provide our soldiers with the resources they need to get the job done and come home safe. And we also call on this administration and Democrats in Congress to drop the big government schemes on energy, on health care and focus on creating opportunities for working families, small businesses and family farms. If this administration and Democrats in Congress will focus on our security and our prosperity, Republicans will stand with you.
 
 
Republican Whip Cantor:

Good morning, the Leader and I attended a meeting yesterday, along with some others at the White House, to hear from the president, to exchange our ideas, express our beliefs in terms of where we head in this country and our role in Central Asia. I think clearly our message was, to the president, that we stand ready to support him if he makes the right decision. And in our mind that decision was made back in March, which is to support the recommendations of our commanders in the field. General McChrystal has submitted his recommendations to the president. We believe very strongly that is the best way to ensure we do everything we can to succeed in that region, to make sure that terrorists, Al-Qaeda, its allies, do not have a stronghold, do not have a base to launch attacks against the United States or our allies.

I also tomorrow will be meeting with Leader Hoyer. He has extended the invitation to sit down, to try and see if we can work together on things that we can agree on in terms of health care reform. I think it's fair to say that we as Republicans in the House feel very strongly that there is too much wrong with H.R. 3200. A public option whether it is a hidden public option or one that is stated is not what the American people want, it's not the proper direction to go as far as health care concerned. But there are many areas we can agree on, outside of that of that avenue, and I'm hopeful that will produce some results and frankly that we can move forward with productive reform here in Washington.
 
 
Rep. Mary Fallin:

Good morning. I'm Mary Fallin from Oklahoma and I'm going to follow up on some of the comments that Rep. Cantor just made. That is dealing with our seniors and their health care. Seniors have paid into a system for years that would afford them quality health care once they enter into their older age and those are one of our most vulnerable portions of our population. But under the Democrats proposal for health care reform, whether it is in the House or the Senate piece of legislation, they are going to lose some of their health care benefits and seniors are very concerned about having health care as they grow older. Now, just because a senior has a Medicare card, it's not guaranteed that they're going to have the access to the Medicare system or the health care they'd like to have because we're finding these days that many doctors are not even participating in the Medicare system. We're finding that they're opting out of the system. That some doctors aren't even accepting seniors or even patients into the Medicare system because of the low reimbursement rates and because of the bureaucratic red tape that is tied up in our Medicare system.
 
Right now we're finding that seniors' choices are very limited in health care and if we pass this piece of legislation that would cut Medicare benefits anywhere from $500 billion or up, then we're going to see less access for our seniors to the health care system that they have paid into. We're going to see rationing of care and we're going to see a diminished quality of life. And of course, President Obama says that he is going to pay for his health care plan with savings from Medicare. But when you have a Medicare system that is on the brink of going bankrupt and running out of money in the near future - possibly by 2017 - how are you going to offer seniors the health care that they deserve if you have a system that's in financial trouble? One that will cut $500 billion out of the system itself when we already have patients that can't get access to care right now and we certainly have doctors that can't afford to offer that. It will mean longer lines for our seniors. It will mean rationing of care. It will mean that the government, versus the doctor and the patient will be deciding what care they can get. Even the Congressional Budget Officer Director Douglas Elmendorf has stated that the Senate Finance Committee bill would reduce the extra benefits that would be made available to beneficiaries through the Medicare Advantage program. I know that could mean that ten million seniors who have chosen the Medicare Advantage program could see their benefits cut. Even in my state of Oklahoma, it is estimated that 81,000 Oklahomans could see their Medicare benefits cut under the current proposals. It's wrong to finance health care reform on the backs of our senior citizens.
 

Republican Leader Boehner:
 
As Mr. Cantor said, he and I were at the White House yesterday to have a conversation with the president.  We appreciated the opportunity to be there to have this conversation with him.  One of the things I mentioned to the president is that I think all of us recognize the difficult decision that he has in front of him.  We have been involved in this fight basically on and off for the last eight years, and I told the president that if he maintained the strategy that he outlined in March, that we would continue to stand with him to deny the Taliban and al Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan.  It was the goal, I believe, that the counterinsurgency strategy that he promoted in March was the right strategy, and it was the president who decided that General McChrystal ought to be the person who ought to be the commander on the ground in Afghanistan.  And so earlier this year I made clear that if the president listened to his commanders on the ground and the diplomats in the region that we would come to a good decision and that we would, in fact, support him.  So I am hopeful that the president will come to a decision soon.  No one wants the president to come to a decision in haste, but we need to remember that our troops that are there, I think, are in much greater danger the longer this debate goes on.  I also think it's important that General McChrystal come to the Congress and testify about the challenges that we face in Afghanistan and his strategy for overcoming those challenges.
 
When it comes to the economy, I think everyone knows that American families and small businesses continue to struggle.  These high unemployment rates are not coming down.  The stimulus is not working, and some of the policies that are continuing to be promoted here are not going to help the situation; they're going to make it worse.  When you look at their proposal on a national energy tax, it's not only going to cost every American more, but it's going to cost our economy millions of jobs every year.  When you look at their proposal for government-run health care, it's pretty obvious to many of us that many employers are going to reduce the number of employees and drop their plans.  It's going to make it more difficult for employees to hire people.  And in a time when we're hoping to get the economy moving again, we do not want to make it more difficult, nor more expensive for employers to do what they do best, and that's grow their businesses and hire more employees.  So we would hope that the Democrats would come to their senses.  Work with us on policies that will promote job creation in America and help get our economy moving again.