House Republicans Tout New Leverage
Along with holding a Capitol press conference, House Republican leaders hit the TV rounds yesterday in the wake of the GOP's Senate win in Massachusetts on Tuesday. The win, they said, was evidence that Americans don't want the health care reform currently being negotiated by House and Senate Democrats.
"While it was a lot about health care, it's not just health care. It's all the spending and debt that's being accumulated here. It's their national energy tax. It's their -- bringing the terrorists to America to put him on trial," Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) told Greta Van Sustren on FOX News. "The American people are opposed to all of these policies, and they are saying, stop."
Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) appeared on at least three TV shows on CNBC, FOX News and CNN, while Mike Pence spoke with Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC.
"The American people are tired of the borrowing, the spending, the bailouts, the takeovers that have been accelerated under now Democrat and previously under Republican administrations," said Pence. "They want us to put our fiscal house in order in Washington, D.C., and want us to set aside all these big government schemes and focus on the kind of measures that are going to get this economy moving again."
Meanwhile, Democrats indicated that health care reform was moving forward. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as much yesterday during her speech to the mayor's conference on the Hill. Majority Whip Jim Clyburn concurred during his appearance alongside Cantor on CNBC.
"I do believe that we will have a health care reform bill, and we will have one that the American people can be proud of," said Clyburn.