Boehner Floor Speech on Democrats’ Refusal to Work With Republicans on Renewing SCHIP
Washington,
Oct 25, 2007 -
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) made the following House floor speech on Democrats’ latest flawed measure to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Text and video of Boehner’s speech are as follows:
Click HERE to view video
“I want to thank my colleague for yielding. Madam Speaker and my colleagues, if you feel as though we've been here before, it's because we have. Last week, we had a vote to override the President's veto, the votes were here to sustain the President's veto. I said during that debate that Republicans and Democrats created this program together, Republicans and Democrats want to re-authorize this program together. The issues that separate us are not that great. We can sit down and resolve this issue. That has not happened.
“As has been pointed out during this debate today, there are differences. There were some attempts to address those differences but by and large most of them, as my colleague from Texas pointed out, were just painted over. Little tweaks and words here and little tweaks and words there. And you’ve already heard about the deficiencies in this bill. But that’s not why I rise. Why I rise is because this doesn’t have to be this way. There is no reason why we on both sides of this aisle, can't come together and resolve the few differences we have in this bill that are well known now.
“But this bill is not being brought up today in a rush, delivered about 7:30 last night, a 293-page bill. With all kinds of changes in it. It wasn’t brought -- we're not debating this bill today to pass it. We’re debating this bill again today to play another political game. You know it. I know it. I sat with the in a Majority Leader yesterday along with the Minority Whip to say, Mr. Majority Leader, we can resolve these differences. We can fix this and we can re-authorize this program. We were turned down. The Chairman of the Democrat Caucus stopped my staffer and said, we don’t care whether you give us the votes to pass this or not because if you don’t, we’ll just pull this bill and we’ll wrap it around your necks in the next election. Political games, political games, political games. Exactly what the American people are sick of. And you all know it. Everyone knows this is nothing more than a political game. Trying to make, score political points getting ready for the next election.
“I thought the American people sent us here to deal with their problems. I think they sent us here to work together to deal with their problems in a way that we can be proud of. Nothing that’s happened this year in this Congress, think about it, step back over the course of this year, nothing has happened yet. And let me tell you, we’ve got another 14 months left in this Congress and nothing is going to happen. Why? Because all the majority wants to do is play political games and not reach across the aisle and get things done.
“My proudest accomplishments over the 17 years that I’ve been here, three big legislative projects that I have worked on were all done in a bipartisan manner. Members from both sides of the aisle that played a significant role in coming together, dealing with issues like education reform, dealing with issues like financial services modernization. Dealing with issues like pension protection, the Pension Protection Act we did last year. We did it together. And when you think about the little differences in this bill, you begin to wonder once again, why Congress' approval rating is at a dismal 10 percent or 15 percent. Why? Because people are tired of watching this process not work.
“This bill is not going to become law. The votes are there to sustain the President’s veto. The President has made it clear he's going to veto it and how long are we going to play the games before we get serious about resolving our differences? This is a sad day and I think a lot of my friends on both sides of the aisle realize this is a sad day when we can't come together and deal with the issues the American people want us to deal with and deal with it like adults. Adults that are willing to sit down and work together and to resolve those differences.
“So I say to my colleagues, even those of my colleagues who voted for this, if you're tired of the political games, if you’re tired of Congress’ approval rating being at these ridiculous levels, let’s all just vote no. Let's vote no and stop this bill and then we can sit down and resolve the differences we have and we can do it in a bipartisan manner and show the American people that we can in fact work together on their behalf.”
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