Hoyer: Democrats Back Pay-As-You-Go Rule Reinstatement

During a meeting with reporters, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) expressed his party’s commitment to reinstating a pay-as-you-go policy that would require Congress to offset spending by cutting an equal amount of funding elsewhere.

Hoyer described PAYGO as a vital tool for rebalancing the U.S. budget.

“The speaker and I met with President last week.  One of the points he made which I strongly agree is that pursuing fiscal responsibility and balance is one of our most important objectives,” said Hoyer.

Hoyer said that he plans on introducing the legislation that would reinstate PAYGO sometime next week.

PAYGO was effectuated in the 1990s, but ended in the early days of the George W. Bush administration. Hoyer blamed Republicans for ending the policy in order to afford tax cuts for the wealthy that occured during Bush’s two terms.

Hoyer Reiterates Party’s Health Care Plans

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) restated his party’s plan to revitalize healthcare, and said he hoped it would be with the support of the Republican minority.

“Republicans are essentially, in my opinion, out of touch with the American people. They began this year by opposing economic recovery legislation…Now we are moving to [a] critical item...health care reform,” said Hoyer during a pen and pad session with reporters Wednesday. “I'm hopeful that we can reach out and work with our Republican colleagues on both of these issues, because they are issues strongly supported by the American people and crying out for a definitive response."

Hoyer stated that lowering health care costs would be a major priority, a goal is shared by the Obama administration. The Majority Leader also offered assurances that individual Americans will still be allowed to choose their healthcare providers.

Hoyer also touched upon fiscal responsibility, describing it as a major concern for both Congress and the President.

"We need to obviously respond to the crisis to stabilize the economy, but that an equal priority is to assuring the fiscal well being of our country and stability of our country and responsibility of our country going forward,” said Hoyer

“Have They No Shame?”

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressed the “outrage that all Americans feel” at AIG executives taking large bonuses on taxpayer money. “These people tried to separate risk from responsibility,” he said, but he was unsure whether there was any legal way to reclaim the money. “The right question is, how can they take these bonuses? Have they no shame? No sense of decency?” The right thing, he continued, would be for them to return the bonuses.
“They thought they would never have to pay the piper. The piper is being paid; not by them, but by the taxpayers,” he finished.

Hoyer also criticized a remark by former Vice President Dick Cheney two days ago that,”I don’t think you can blame the Bush administration for the creation of those (economic) circumstances.” Hoyer provided various quotes from Cheney, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Leader John Boehner, and former President George Bush to the effect that Republicans were not responsible for the current financial crisis.

“The last administration started with a January growth of 164,000 jobs. The Obama administration took over in a January that lost 351,000 jobs,” he said. Hoyer contrasted the $5.6 trillion surplus that Bush started with against the $4.5 trillion deficit that Obama inherited. “It’s mind-boggling that the former vice president simply said, ‘well, it’s not our fault.’”

New bill to restore rights of the disabled

Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Majority Leader, spoke at a press conference about the American Disabilities Restoration Act. He said that the American court system has slowly chipped away at the rights of the disabled by narrowing the definition of a disability. This bill should broaden the definition of a disability and restore rights to disabled Americans. He said this bill also directs companies to lower the burden of disability. He said that this was an important aspect to ensuring the rights of the disabled.

He said this bill will restore the ADA act to its rightful place in America and Congressman Hoyer said that it is a victory for civil rights. He said that the bill should be through the house by the end of the day. He said that he hopes the Senate will vote soon and President Bush can sign the bill as soon as possible.

He said that since President Bush Sr. signed the bill 18 years ago it has been eroding, offering less and less protection for the disabled. He said that this restoration act should fix that problem.

House Majority Leader calls for domestic drilling

In his weekly pen and pad briefing, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that Democrats are supportive of using U.S. products to combat the rising oil prices. He said the most viable option, drilling in federal land and water, was still opposed by Republicans who want to drill offshore or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). He said that there are 68 million acres of federally owned land in the U.S. and this land shelters 107 billion barrels of oil and 658 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Hoyer said the only tool to lower gas prices in the near future is to try and control oil speculation. He told the press that his oil experts said that production cost was not really the driving force behind the colossal rise in gas prices, but that speculation accounted for between 20 and 50 percent of rising gas prices. He said that drilling ANWR would completely ignore the substantial supply already available in federal land.

He said that President Bush has done nothing to encourage conservation since taking office. Hoyer said that the Republicans may want oil prices to go down but instead of taking action he said they just offer subsidies to oil companies. He said that Senator McCain’s (R-Az.) new plan to develop an electric car was created to balance out the four billion dollar tax cut he proposed for the five largest U.S. oil companies.