ICYMI: Hensarling on Fox News, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren
“So with all due respect to the president, I don't think he’d know a jobs bill if he tripped over it.”
House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) appeared on Fox News’ On The Record with Greta Van Susteren last night to discuss President Obama’s recent attacks on House Republicans and the House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators. Below are excerpts from the interview.
On the president’s claim that House Republicans are not passing any jobs bills:
“I don't think there is a president in living memory who has less credibility on the topic of jobs and the economy than Barack Obama.
“He told the American people if we passed his stimulus plan, unemployment would never go beyond 8 percent and in fact it would be 6 percent now. … We’ve had 38 straight months of 8 percent-plus unemployment – the worst record since the Great Depression.
“We were told if we passed his health care plan that it would help the economy. We now know the Congressional Budget Office says it will cost us almost a million jobs; frankly, private economists put the number much higher.
“He told us if we passed the Dodd-Frank Act – supposedly aimed at Wall Street – that would help the economy. Instead what we see is that the big banks are getting bigger, the small banks are getting smaller, and the taxpayer is getting poorer.
“So with all due respect to the president, I don't think he’d know a jobs bill if he tripped over it.”
On the House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators:
“House Republicans have passed over 30 different jobs bills and, with one or two exceptions, he’s ignored them all. People can go who are viewing your show to jobs.gop.gov and see what we’ve done. It's mainly aimed at making the tax code fairer, flatter, simpler, more competitive; trying to balance these regulations against the cost of jobs. It has everything to do with bringing down the cost of energy.”
On the president and Senate Democrats inaction on House Republican jobs bills:
“Again, the president’s policies have failed. He is presiding over an economy where half of all Americans now are either classified by the Census Bureau as being either in poverty or in low income. Single mothers—you have more of them in poverty than ever before. Small businesses are frankly just throwing up their hands at the regulatory and red tape onslaught. Again, this is a president who, because he can't run on his record on jobs and the economy, frankly usually tries to engage the politics of division and envy.
“My fear is that they’ve made a political play-call that it's more important that nothing gets done in Washington. Meanwhile, again, House Republicans have put forth—we deal with the drivers that would help this economy. Number one, dealing with this red tape burden to make sure that anything that has significant impact on the economy has to be approved by the elected Congress as opposed to the unelected bureaucracy; fundamental tax code [reform] to bring down rates at 10 percent and 25 percent on a deficit-neutral basis by getting rid of all the underbrush of the loopholes and special interest deductions. Frankly, getting rid of the president's health care plan would be huge in creating jobs.”
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For additional information, contact:
House Republican Conference Press Office (conferencepress@mail.house.gov)
