Republican Leadership Press Conference
September 15, 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)
- Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)

Multimedia:

Audio  |  Video  |  Photos

Transcript:

Conference Chairman Pence:
 
Good morning, all. We just completed our meeting of the House Republican Conference and had a good discussion about the issues before the House this week and before the country.

I was home in Indiana yesterday - our state was rocked with the news that one of our leading employers, Eli Lilly and Company, was going to lay off more than 5,000 employees. Projections include upwards to 2,000 Hoosiers will lose their jobs by the year 2011. When I was in Evansville, Indiana, just a few weeks ago in August, we received word that the Whirlpool plant, a plant that had been there for more than half of a century, was closing permanently, ending 1,100 jobs from Southwestern Indiana.
 
Our economy is struggling, families are hurting. And yet, this Congress is poised to demand an apology from a man who has already apologized. It's a disappointment to millions of Americans. Last week the Speaker of the House said, ‘It's time to talk about health care.' I say Speaker Pelosi was half right. The American people want less politics and more jobs. They want this Congress to put aside petty, partisan politics. To put aside this plan for a government takeover of health care and focus on what we know has always worked to get this economy moving again. That's fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C. and immediate tax relief for working families, small businesses and family farms.
 
Less politics, more jobs. That's what Republicans will continue to fight for.
 

Rep. Cynthia Lummis:

In August, we heard how frustrated and fed up the American people are with government takeovers of businesses like health care, like the automobile industry, like the financial services industry. And yet, this week, we are going to talk about the takeover of the student loan industry? These are private American jobs that are going to be lost once again to the government. At the same time that government wants to take over healthcare.

My constituents are fed up; the American people are fed up. We saw it over the weekend and we saw it during August. It's time for us to address these issues and not spend our time spinning our wheels on matters that are not of importance to the American people.

I call on my colleagues to spend our time wisely for the remainder of this year. And that means undoing much of the damage that we have done in the first eight months of this calendar year.


Republican Whip Cantor:

We've reached a critical juncture in this session of Congress, and I believe a very momentous time in terms of public debate in this country. The President came to the hill last week, and admonished Congress to set aside partisan bickering and get to work for the American people. As all of us have seen over the last several weeks, perhaps months, there is a real fear out there across this country that somehow we are losing the grip on the America that we all know and love. Whether it is the takeover of the auto industry, whether it is the continued meddling in the capital markets, and now is it going to be that Washington will actually replace the decision making power by the government, instead of having the individuals and their doctors do so in the arena of health care. We have an opportunity, I think all of us, to really step up to the plate, respond to the people on this. The people of this country are looking to Washington to demonstrate some responsible behavior and finally take on the issues.

This president has made it his priority to affect health care reform. All of us on our side of the aisle reject the status quo. We have put forward plans and ideas on how we can best do that. And instead of continuing the speechmaking, instead of engaging in party politics, we should begin to talk about where we can agree. We've set forward many of those areas. We ought to be guaranteeing to the people that we are not going to break the bank in this health care program. That we understand we can address the pre-existing conditions issue and we can address the issue of portability, so that when you lose your job you don't necessarily lose your health care. These are areas where we can agree, and I know that all of us want to call upon this President and the Speaker of the House to work in a bipartisan way, to set aside just the name calling and the blaming and put some meaning behind the claims of bipartisanship.


Rep. Mary Fallin:
 
I'm Mary Fallin from Oklahoma.  The people of America want us to listen to them, and they feel like Congress has not been listening to their concerns.  They're very concerned about the future of our country, they're very concerned about the big spending, the regulation, the mandates, the government takeover of so many different industries, and now they're very concerned about the government proposing to take over their personal health care.
 
The people of America have, I believe, sent a very clear signal that they do not want the federal government taking over their personal decisions about their health care, and what kind of health care they can have.  They're tired of the bickering that's going on here in Washington, D.C. They want us to sit down and work together. There are common issues which Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike can support to help lower health care costs.  Americans have made it very clear they want health care reform that lowers their costs, creates better access to care, helps them stabilize their costs in their businesses for health care expenses, and provides families the access to care that they desperately need.
 
It's time for us in Congress to sit down and work together to show the American people that we can lead this nation and that we can put aside partisan issues and bickering to really address the concerns that they have.  That's why we saw so many people come together this past weekend here on Capitol Hill.  Millions of people that came from across the nation saying, "We're concerned about the future of our nation.  We want you to listen to us.  It's time for Congress to pay attention and address our concerns."


Republican Leader Boehner:
 
While Democrats want to change the subject, the American people are concerned about the costly government takeover of our health care system.  What I think what the American people are saying is, "stop."  Let's hit the reset button, and let's start over.
 
Republicans have offered what we think are better solutions: to fix the problems in our current health care system without replacing it with this big government-run program.  And I believe that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are hearing the same message, because if they had the votes to move this costly government takeover of health care, we'd see it on the floor this week.  It's not on the floor this week, and so we're going to continue to have a debate here in Washington about how we can fix the current system, not replace it.
 
I think we've got very good ideas, and I would just hope that the President and Democrat leaders here in Congress would work with us to fix those problems.  They've been outlined before, whether it's those with preexisting conditions, with portability of taking your health care with you from job to job, medical malpractice reform and the defensive medicine that doctors practice.  All of these things could help bring down the cost of health care in America and make it more affordable for millions more Americans.