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December 01, 2010
Last night, in response to news reports that Liberty University’s lawsuit against the job-killing health care law’s individual mandate was dismissed, the White House’s blog compared those who have filed a legal challenge to the health care law to people who opposed “the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act,” stating that “challenges like this are nothing new.” While legal challenges to laws Congress passes may be “nothing new,” the heart of the suit against ObamaCare - the burdensome individual mandate - is new, because it is an unprecedented power grab by the federal government that will diminish freedom and job-creation. And unlike the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act, the job-killing health care law was passed through Congress on a highly partisan vote, and signed into law over the objections of a majority of the American people.
But Republicans aren’t standing by while Democrats implement their job-killing health care law. Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-West Chester) and other GOP Congressional leaders are meeting with newly-elected Republican governors this afternoon to discuss “a collaborative effort” to “pick apart the health care law,” in addition to other pressing issues, like jobs and spending. One joint approach the GOP has taken so far is a legal challenge to the job-killing health care law centered around the unconstitutional individual mandate, which is weaving its way through the courts now. As the New York Times reported on Saturday, the unconstitutional individual mandate may well prove ObamaCare’s undoing: As the Obama administration presses ahead with the health care law, officials are bracing for the possibility that a federal judge in Virginia will soon reject its central provision as unconstitutional and, in the worst case for the White House, halt its enforcement until higher courts can rule….Virginia’s attorney general, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a Republican who filed the Richmond lawsuit, argues that if Judge Hudson rejects the insurance requirement he should instantly invalidate the entire act on a nationwide basis. As Boehner wrote in USA Today earlier this year, “This is the first time in American history that Congress has passed a law mandating that you buy something simply because you're breathing...If the federal government thinks it can get away with this kind of power grab, it will think it can do anything.” With the Pledge to America, Republicans made clear their commitment to repeal the job-killing health care law and replace it with better solutions. Republicans will continue standing with small businesses and fighting to repeal this job-killing law to give entrepreneurs the freedom and certainty they need to put Americans back to work.
Posted by
Press Office
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November 29, 2010
In this week's Web video, Boehner discusses his hope that an upcoming meeting on December 1 with Republican congressional leaders and newly elected governors will serve as the beginning of a collaborative effort to put an end to out-of-control government spending and help small businesses get back to creating jobs. Video and key excerpts are included below.
Boehner says:
Posted by
Press Office
on
November 23, 2010
During an interview today with Brian Thomas on Cincinnati’s 550 KRC-AM, Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) said that Republicans have heard the clear message Americans sent on Nov. 2, and will follow through on their demands for a smaller, more accountable and less costly government. Boehner also discussed the need to stop all the coming tax hikes and repeal the costly new health care law that is keeping small businesses from growing and hiring. Key excerpts are included below: Testing
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Posted by
Press Office
on
November 22, 2010
It’s now been five days since White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that President Obama supports “an outright ban on earmarks” after questions were raised as to whether that was in fact the case. Unfortunately, the president has yet to call on Democratic Leaders to follow House and Senate Republicans in adopting an earmark ban in the 112th Congress. Of course, it’s not hard to decipher the president’s hesitation, what with Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offering “no apologies” for his support of earmarking as we know it. For her part, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has fallen silent on earmarks despite declaring in July 2006, “‘I’d get rid of all of them. None of them is worth the skepticism, the cynicism the public has . … and the fiscal irresponsibility of it.”
Meanwhile, support for an earmark ban continues to roll in from editorial boards around the country:
Republicans are listening to the people and standing firm on the need to take this and other critical steps to restore public trust. Shortly after House Republicans adopted an earmark ban for the 112th Congress, Speaker-designate John Boehner said, “This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.” It’s now up to President Obama to prove his support for an earmark ban is serious, and not just post-election me-tooism designed to make up for nearly two years of runaway spending. Republicans are listening to the people and standing firm on the need to take this and other critical steps to restore public trust. Shortly after House Republicans adopted an earmark ban for the 112th Congress, Speaker-designate John Boehner said, “This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.” It’s now up to President Obama to prove his support for an earmark ban is serious, and not just post-election me-tooism designed to make up for nearly two years of runaway spending.
Posted by
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November 18, 2010
House Republicans today unanimously adopted a resolution offered by Representative-elect Sean Duffy (R-WI) to ban earmarks in the people’s House. Mr. Duffy will soon represent the same district as current Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI), author of the infamous “stimulus” bill. But when will congressional Democrats hold a similar vote, and when will President Obama call on them to do so?
Judging by their track record, Democrats may never get around to banning earmarks. Check out what then-Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in 2006: “Ms. Pelosi also spoke out against earmarking billions of dollars for home-state projects, a practice she calls a ‘monster’ that hurts Congress. If she becomes speaker in the next Congress, she says, she would press to severely reduce earmarks. ‘Personally, myself, I'd get rid of all of them,’ she says.” (The Wall Street Journal, 7/13/06, A4) Speaker Pelosi and Washington Democrats have had four years to ban earmarks – and never did. The new Republican majority has already moved to ban earmarks even before the start of the 112th Congress, earning support of support of both House and Senate Republicans, as Reuters recently noted: Republicans in both the Senate and the House of Representatives have now forsworn earmarks as they eye large spending cuts in the coming year…Though earmarks account for less than one half of a percent of the federal budget, they have become a symbol of wasteful spending for many grassroots Tea Party activists who helped Republicans win big in the November 2 elections. ‘I think it shows that this conference is serious about doing what it said we were going to be about -- limited government, spending reduction, dealing with the national debt,’ said newly elected Republican Senator Marco Rubio.With bicameral Republican support of a ban on earmarks, House and Senate Republicans are demonstrating that they are listening to the American people and are serious about restoring trust between the American people and those who are elected to represent them. As the New York Times noted yesterday, the earmark ban “has quickly emerged as a high-profile if somewhat symbolic test of the willingness of Republicans…to respond to what they see as a message of the midterm elections.” Contrast that with Washington Democrats, who have refused to consider an earmark ban, as POLITICO reported last evening: One day after Republicans challenged them to reject earmarks, Senate Democrats huddled behind closed doors Wednesday and held a ‘long discussion’ on the practice as part of a larger debate over how to balance the federal budget and erase mounting debt...But most Democrats defend the practice of funneling federal dollars to pet projects in their home states. Yesterday, White House Press Secretary said the President supported the Republicans’ earmark ban: Q: And real quick on the earmarks, on the earmarks. I know Obama has come out up front a lot on this, but does he want an outright ban on earmarks? Representative-elect Sean Duffy wrote in an op-ed for POLITICO today that “If we are serious about cutting spending, focusing on creating jobs and reforming Congress, then we must agree: The time for earmarks has come to an end.” By banning earmarks in the 112th Congress, Republicans have shown they are listening to the American people; when will President Obama and Washington Democrats follow suit?
Posted by
Press Office
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November 17, 2010
In this week’s Constituent Mailbag, Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) responds to e-mails from Sylvia from West Chester and Charlie in Hamilton about his plans to use commercial airlines, and Republicans’ Pledge to bring about a smaller, more accountable and less costly government. Video and key excerpts are included below: Boehner Outlines New Majority’s Plans to Cut Spending and Reduce the Size of Gov’t: “Republicans have been listening to the American people who are saying ‘enough is enough,’ and in the next Congress we’ll act immediately to reduce the size of government and return power in the House where it belongs: in the hands of the people. Through our Pledge to America we’ll require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill would be enacted. We’ll also act on a plan to rein in the red tape factory in Washington, D.C., by requiring congressional approval of any new federal regulation that has an annual cost to our economy of more than $100 million or more. And we’ll repeal the President’s costly jobs-killing health care law and its burdensome ‘1099 Mandate.’” Boehner Says He’ll Use Commercial Airlines to Commute to Washington: “I am serious about cutting government spending as a way to help end the economic uncertainty in America that is keeping small businesses from growing and hiring… As to the Speaker’s plane, I’ve been flying commercial between Ohio and Washington for more than 20 years and I’m going to continue to fly commercial if I become the next Speaker.”
Posted by
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November 15, 2010
House and Senate GOP leaders are now unified in support of an earmark ban. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement that he would support an earmark ban in the 112th Congress reinforces Republicans’ commitment to ending business as usual in Washington. More importantly, it means that only President Obama and Washington Democrats stand in the way of this critical effort to restore public trust.
For his part, President Obama issued a statement praising Sen. McConnell’s announcement and reiterating his support for “cracking down” on earmarks. Yet, nowhere in his statement does the president urge the leaders of his party to hold simple up-or-down votes on imposing an earmark ban, something House and Senate Republicans will do this week. It appears the president is not yet willing to confront what The Washington Post calls “resistance from veteran Democratic lawmakers” clinging to earmarks. POLITICO adds that it “remains to be seen” how the White House will “avert a potential standoff with Senate Democrats on the matter.” Now, compare this uncertainty to how House senior advisor David Axelrod “made it clear” yesterday that the president “has made no commitment to vetoing spending bills that contain earmarks despite calls from fiscal hawks for the president to make that pledge.” To recap:
Here’s one thing we do know: earmarks are a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the American people. An earmark moratorium shows elected officials are serious about working to restore trust between the American people and those elected to serve them. Why is President Obama standing in the way of our ability to move forward and take this critical step towards restoring public trust? As he said earlier this year, “Gridlock as a political strategy is destructive to the country.”
Posted by
Press Office
on
November 10, 2010
The state rebellion against ObamaCare, which started last March in Virginia and grew to include twenty other states plus the National Federation of Independent Business, will only grow stronger next year. With only one in six Americans content with the Democrats’ job-killing government takeover of health care, it was only inevitable that the Administration and Washington Democrats would continue to face resistance from states.
Pam Bondi, Florida’ Attorney General-Elect, noted in an appearance on Fox News’ On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren that “we could have a total of 28 states joining in this lawsuit” against the unconstitutional, job-killing mandates in ObamaCare. Those states include: Oklahoma, Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Maine, and California. As Professor Ilya Somin noted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Sunday: “When 21 states and several private groups initiated lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Obama health care law earlier this year, critics denounced the suits as frivolous political grandstanding. But it is increasingly clear that the plaintiffs have a serious case with a real chance of victory.” It’s not just the states that are revolting against ObamaCare, though. In the House of Representatives, the new Republican majority has vowed to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare. As Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), the Chairman of the GOP Majority Transition Committee, said on Fox News last night: We are going to do everything we can to repeal and replace the health care bill. This is a job-killing law. We know that from the Congressional Budget Office, we know that from Suffolk University, both of whom said 780,000 jobs can be lost. Let’s get health care reform that doesn’t cost jobs and can bend down the cost curve. This new law does neither of that.Whether it’s in the Congress or in the states, ObamaCare and its job-killing employer mandate will be challenged relentlessly. And it’s not a moment too soon, because Kaiser Health News reported today that ObamaCare’s job-killing employer mandate will lead small businesses, responsible for more than 60 percent of all new jobs in America, to drop health care coverage all together, leaving employers with the choice of hiring fewer people, dropping coverage, or both: One of the most fundamental ideas in the new health law is that employers should offer health insurance to their workers, or else they would have to pay a penalty, beginning in 2014. The fear has been that many businesses would opt for ‘or else,’ leaving their workers searching for coverage....Twenty percent [of small businesses] - one-fifth - told Mercer they are ‘likely’ to stop offering health plans once people have the option of buying insurance from state-run exchanges, virtual marketplaces.With the “invisible” unemployment rate above 11 percent and “five unemployed workers available for every job opening,” according to the New York Times, it’s imperative that the states and Congress do everything their power to stop the job-killing mandates in ObamaCare. Republicans have listened to Americans, who have been asking “where are the jobs?”and offered better solutions in the Pledge to America, including extending all the current tax rates, cutting spending back to pre-“stimulus,” pre-bailout levels, and repealing and replacing ObamaCare. Read more here: GOP.gov/pledge or visit the Pledge Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/PledgeToAmerica.
Posted by
Press Office
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November 05, 2010
In sit-down interviews with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and Fox News’ Bret Baier, Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) talks about Republicans’ commitment to listening to the American people and going to work on their priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending, and making Congress more accountable to the people it serves. Specifically, Boehner told Baier that this week’s events make it clear the American people want us to “stop all the tax hikes and cut spending,” which is exactly what Republicans have proposed in the Pledge to America. During the interview with Sawyer, Boehner recounted his experiences meeting with Tea Party activists coast-to-coast and said we ought to welcome their participation because it’s going to “reinvigorate our democracy.” Following are videos of the interviews, along with selected excerpts:
On FOX, Boehner Says Stopping All Tax HIkes is the Will of the People:
Posted by
Press Office
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November 04, 2010
In a segment that first aired last night, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer takes a look at how Congressman John Boehner’s (R-West Chester) modest, working-class upbringing in Reading, OH and experience running a small business helped shape his role as a dedicated reformer and passionate advocate for smaller, more accountable government.
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