John Boehner: Speaker of the House?
By: Kathryn Jean Lopez
The Corner
Just now, Boehner made his speaker pitch to CPAC:
<<< Ladies and gentlemen, if you help elect a Republican Congress this November, and I’m fortunate enough to be elected Speaker of the House, I pledge to you right here and now: we’re going to run the House differently. And I don’t just mean differently than the way Democrats are running it now. I mean differently than it’s been run in the past under Democrats OR Republicans. >>>
The full speech is below:
When I spoke here a year ago we were a month into the "Obama era."
Days earlier, House Republicans had stood united together and voted "NO" on the president's trillion-dollar "stimulus."
I was still taking heat from people like Keith Olbermann for tossing the "stimulus" bill to the floor.
They said it was disrespectful. They said we were committing political suicide. They said it was the death knell for the Republican Party and conservatives.
As usual, they were completely wrong.
That moment didn't signal the "death" of the Republican Party. If anything, it was a rebirth - the start of a transformational process that's still going on. It was the moment when Republicans officially started listening to the American people again.
The Democrats tried every trick in the book to try and get some of us to vote "yes" on the "stimulus." They tried to buy us off with pork. They tried to intimidate us with polls. They tried to scare us by calling us the "party of no."
None of it worked.
All of us - every single one of us - voted "no." Because we were listening to the people who elected us.
You know, if there's one thing I hope you learn about me it's that I'm a regular guy. Growing up I worked in my dad's tavern, tended bar, mopped floors, dealt with customers. After college I went into sales and worked my way up to run my own small business.
My experiences taught me three lessons that I'd like to share with you today - lessons that I think drive all successful leaders, parties, and movements. They're at the core of who I am and how I operate. And I think they say a lot about how I'd lead a new Republican Majority in Congress.
The first lesson is simple: be open, transparent, and willing to listen.
I come from a big family. My folks worked hard to send me to Moeller, a Catholic high school in Cincinnati. I later worked my way through Xavier University. I was lucky. I got a great education. I learned to be a straight-shooter. I learned that honesty is the best policy. And I learned to listen - in school, whether it was a lecture or a scolding, I listened.
Too often people who get elected in this country get it backwards.
They think their job is to be the lecturer, not the listener.
Politico had an article recently titled "Obama the Scold."
Voters thought they were electing a commander-in-chief in 2008 - instead they got a professor who offers finger-wagging lectures on buying energy efficient light bulbs, exercising more, and staying away from blogs and cable news.
We have a president who tells us why we should endure "skyrocketing" energy prices and higher taxes. We have a president who tells us we need government-run health care because doctors remove kids' tonsils to make more money. A president who lectures the Supreme Court to their faces.
Nobody's immune from the finger-wagging.
I was in the White House for a meeting a few weeks back. We were talking about the economy and I was explaining that Democrats' policies - a "cap and trade" national energy tax, government takeover of health care, "card check," and others - were paralyzing small businesses with uncertainty.
No small business owner can plan, invest, or hire new workers in this environment.
But the president didn't like it. He looked at me, slapped the table, and said, "Boehner, it's not my policies that are scaring small businesses. It's you Republicans!"
I told him, "Mr. President, people aren't scared by what we say - they're scared by what your policies will do!"
Here's the thing: the American people want leaders who listen - not a lecturer-in-chief.
But it's not just the president: none of the Democrats in charge are listening.
They've ignored the cries of outraged Americans by forcing a vote on bill after bill without giving lawmakers or the public time to read them.
They've written bill after bill behind closed doors, replacing transparency with Cornhusker Kickbacks and sweetheart deals for their union backers.
They've broken the president's promise to broadcast all of their health care talks on CSPAN.
Senate Democrats secretly added more than 70 "phantom amendments" to their health care bill - after it had been passed by committee!
Ladies and gentlemen, if you help elect a Republican Congress this November, and I'm fortunate enough to be elected Speaker of the House, I pledge to you right here and now: we're going to run the House differently.
And I don't just mean differently than the way Democrats are running it now. I mean differently than it's been run in the past under Democrats OR Republicans.
I was there for the Contract with America in 1994. I helped write it.
My current chief of staff was the director. The things we did in the first 100 days of the Contract changed the way Congress works. We forced Congress to live under the same laws as the rest of the country, and required private audits of the books for the first time.
These were huge changes at the time. But reform has to be an ongoing process.
If I'm the Speaker next year, we're going to get the reform movement started again.
One of my first orders of business will be to post every bill online for at least three days before a vote.
We will require our committees to quickly post all bills and votes online, and will outlaw "phantom amendments."
We will put cameras in the Rules Committee hearing room so Americans can see how decisions are made about what bills come to a vote.
We'll ban the practice of "airdropping" earmarks into bills at the last possible minute to dodge public scrutiny.
We'll outlaw "monuments to me," where legislators use your tax money to build projects named after themselves.
And we'll take better advantage of new technology to continue to break down the walls between citizens and legislators, and to make our Congress more transparent and accountable to the American people.
This is all part of our new Congressional Transparency Initiative - and I'm serious about it. Congressman Greg Walden of Oregon, the new chairman of our leadership team, is heading it up. You can read about it online at GOPLeader.gov/ReadtheBill.
For too long - under Democrats and Republicans alike - Congress has been too closed and too insular. Both parties are guilty. I want to change it. I've wanted to change it for a long time. And now we have a chance to do it.
The second lesson is something I always tell my colleagues: if you do the right thing for the right reasons, good things will happen. We've seen that over and over through the last year.
We stood united against the "stimulus." Republicans also voted unanimously against the $410 billion "omnibus" spending bill. We were unanimously against the president's $3.6 trillion budget. And not one Republican supported their plan to turn the TARP bailout into a permanent slush fund for politicians.
On the "cap and trade" national energy tax, I stood on the House floor and read - line by line - from their bill after they gave us less than 24 hours to read it. We opposed it too.
We didn't bend on their health care bill either. And I'm going to continue to insist that Democrats scrap their government takeover of health care and start over.
The media recently reported that President Obama "admitted" that his health care bill had "run into a buzzsaw." But what the president actually said was that the bill ran into a 'buzzsaw of lobbyists and special interests.'
When you stop and think about that, it's downright insulting. It's an insult to everyone in this room, and to millions of citizens across this country who reject government-run health care.
Mr. President, that 'buzzsaw' your health care bill ran into wasn't 'lobbyists and special interests.' The 'buzzsaw' was the American people. And they're going to keep fighting until Washington starts listening to them.
There's another issue that we don't bend on - and that's the sanctity of life.
In November, pro-life lawmakers joined together to stop Democrats from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion procedures. We got some flak for working with the other party on this - but on protecting the unborn, there's no compromise.
We've stood on principle - done the right thing for the right reasons - and are showing voters that there is a clear difference between the parties.
But we won't stop there. Baby Boomers - my generation - have created a pretty big mess. We've made promises to ourselves that our children and grandchildren simply cannot afford.
To most politicians though, it's easier to kick the can down the road or create a toothless commission. If those in charge won't step up and offer serious solutions to fix our entitlement programs or get control of our debt, we need leaders who will.
And that's why my third and final lesson is that real leaders work harder than the other guys.
Whether you're talking about sports, business, politics, or anything, the team that works the hardest is the one that wins.
And the hard work isn't just winning a majority - it's in doing something great with it.
I warned Nancy Pelosi about this on the day I handed her the speaker's gavel in 2007. I said the value of a majority lies not in the opportunity to wield great power, but in the chance to use power to do great things.
But they aren't up to the task. Whether it was more spending, more taxing, or more government, all we've been left with is more debt and fewer jobs.
The hard work is cutting spending, getting control of the debt, and living within your means.
The hard work is helping to create new jobs by blocking needless regulations, expanding energy production, and opening new markets for American goods.
The hard work is keeping terrorists out of America and defeating al Qaeda - not reading them their Miranda rights and putting them on civilian trial.
The hard work is actually reining in junk lawsuits and knocking down barriers that drive up health care costs.
This is the hard work Republicans are prepared to do. And in the months ahead we're going to tell the nation exactly what we'd do differently if we're entrusted with power.
But it won't be a document handed down from on high by politicians, because something like that would land with a big thud. It's going to be built by listening.
I've asked Kevin McCarthy to lead this project on behalf of all House Republicans.
We're going to listen to things like the 'Contract From America.'
We're going to listen to things like the Mount Vernon statement. We're going to listen to the tea party movement. It will come from those who are really in charge of this country: the American people. While the other side is busy mocking the tea partiers and calling them names, we're going to listen to them, stand with them, and walk among them.
It's going to take a lot of work to elect a new Majority that will take on our problems and stand up to the president.
We need to pick up 40 Democrat-held seats - a big number, but if you remember, we won 54 in 1994.
My goal has been to have a Republican candidate in all 435 Congressional Districts and at least 100 that are well-funded and running winning campaigns. We're almost there.
To help us go the extra mile and really take advantage of this year, I need your help.
Everyone in this room is already engaged. Your efforts help win campaigns. Your blogs are must-reads around the country and Capitol Hill. Your ideas will fuel the future of the conservative movement.
You're already part of the fight.
That's why I need you to recruit friends who aren't already involved.
Maybe they're friends who don't usually have the time. Maybe they went to a tea party but aren't sold on Republicans yet. Either way, I need your help to bring them along.
Please encourage them to visit my website, FreedomProject.org, and sign up to receive updates. Or connect with me on Facebook, Digg, or Twitter at "JohnBoehner" or "GOPLeader." Share your thoughts with me. Let me know what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong.
But above all, stay engaged.
You know as well as I do that a political rebellion is brewing across the country.
Back in September I took questions in front of a crowd of 18,000 in my hometown of West Chester, Ohio.
The rally was organized by our local tea party chapters. I mention this because the Republican Party cannot and should not attempt to 'co-opt' the tea parties.
What we will do, as long as I'm the leader, is respect them, listen to them, and walk among them. The other party won't do that.
At that rally, and at others I've attended, I see the same thing: Americans from all walks of life getting involved in politics for the first time: families, young adults, grandparents, small business owners, and more.
Working Americans who believe in the Constitution are simply saying, "Enough is enough."
I can't tell you that a Republican Congress will change the world in two years - we won't. We can't. But we can stop the Obama-Pelosi agenda. We can promote better solutions to the challenges facing the country.
And so in closing, that's my pledge to you. If you help me elect a Republican Majority this November, we will be open, transparent, and we will listen.
We will stand on principle and continue to do the right thing.
And we will work hard - 24/7 - to start cleaning up the messes that until now have been left for our kids and grandkids.
So come with me. Work alongside me. And we will take on and win this fight together.
Thank you and God bless.
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