Hoyer Blames GOP Leadership For 'Do Nothing' Congress

By Adrianna McGinley

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday he remains hopeful that Republicans and Democrats will work in the last weeks of the year to pass economic recovery legislation, but the GOP must be willing to cooperate.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if Mr. Boehner, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Cantor and I sat down and we could all agree that we’ll both come up with a majority, under the following circumstances…we could do it,” Hoyer said. “The issue is whether or not we’re going to do it in a bipartisan way or pursue a partisan message.”

Hoyer blasted Republicans for moving less than half the amount of legislation the Democratically-controlled Congress moved in 2007 under a Republican administration and attributed the lack of action to a complete unwillingness of the GOP to move away from political messages.

“They voted three times to end Medicare, we’re not going to do that, they continue to vote for it. [They] voted ten times on regulatory bills that do not create jobs…They voted 23 times against initiatives to create jobs…They voted 14 times to repeal patient protections and put insurance companies back in control of healthcare, they know that’s not going to pass the Senate, they know the president is not going to sign it. These are all political message bills for their base, a relatively narrow base.”

“We’ve moved a lot of legislation through the House which the speaker must have known, we knew, had no chance in the Senate, but it was their political message,” Hoyer added. “They’ve been pursuing their political message, not policy.”

When asked if he thinks House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is responsible, he said, “Yes, I think the Speaker bears responsibility. He is, after all, the leader.”

With the current continuing resolution expiring in two weeks, Hoyer said “we are going to urge staying here until we get [the sustainable growth rate, unemployment insurance, and payroll taxes] done.”

On the legislation proposing an extension and increase of the payroll tax, Hoyer said Republicans are alienating their constituents, citing that roughly 75 percent of Americans support raising taxes on millionaires to aid the middle class.

“I frankly think the millionaires’ tax is putting a lot of heat on the Republicans,” Hoyer said.

He criticized arguments that raising taxes on the wealthy would negatively affect small-business owners, saying it “is not going to impact at all, according to any economist, job creation in America. What it will do is give us resources to protect the most vulnerable in America.”

“Every bipartisan group that has looked at it says you cannot get to where we need to get if you do not deal with additional revenues, and very frankly, almost every Republican leader that I’ve talked to agrees,” Hoyer added.

While he does not want to see sequestration take effect, Hoyer said, Democratic leadership is not working to avoid it, and he believes Democrats will support a presidential veto on any legislation with that goal.

“We need to keep the sequester in place, but realize it is an incentive, a reason, a demand, if you will, that we come to an agreement and adopt a balanced response to the fiscal challenge that confronts us…The sequester was the discipline. If you now simply spend time figuring out ‘well how can we get around the sequester,’ frankly, it eliminate the discipline.”

Boehner Claims Obama Consumed By Reelection

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused President Barack Obama Wednesday of paying too much attention to the upcoming Presidential election.

“Watching the President here over the last couple of weeks has been a bit disappointing,” Boehner remarked during an appearance before the National Automobile Dealers Association. “It’s disappointing because it is pretty clear that the President has decided to forget his role as President and leader of our nation in a time of economic uncertainty to begin to campaign for his reelection some 14 months away.” 

Boehner dismissed Obama’s newly released debt plan as simple politics, adding that it will kill American jobs by raising taxes and make it more difficult for businesses to enhance the economy.

“I have been talking to the President all year about the need to do something big - the need to work together to solve our deficit and debt problem - and the fact that we could attempt to do this together would show the American people that both parties could work together on their behalf,” Boehner stated.

But the bipartisan effort did not work, according to Boehner, because Obama would not make the requested changes to entitlements that would ensure they would remain intact for future generations.

“It is time for us to lead and if the President won’t lead I can tell you that the Congress of the United States on both sides of the aisle will work together to do the right thing for our country,” Boehner said.

As Boehner concluded, he assured the audience that he was optimistic that both sides of the aisle would be able to work together to lead the nation through hard economic times.

“I grew up working in a bar, mopping floors, washing dishes and waiting tables. I learned to deal with every ‘jackass’ that walked in the door,” Boehner enumerated. “Trust me, I need all the skills I learned growing up to do my job today.”