Blogger Conference Call Notes
I just finished participating in a blogger conference call put together by Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence. Other legislators participating in the call were Rep. Lynn Jenkins, Rep. Peter Roskam & Rep. Jeff Flake. The call mostly dealt with the stimulus package but also touched on SCHIP, tax reform, economic growth & inflation.
Rep. Pence updated us on the votes that’ve taken place thus far this week. Rep. Pence said that there was great unity in opposing the current SCHIP bill. He made clear, though, that House Republicans aren’t opposed to SCHIP. They’re just opposed to expanding it to children whose parents are well into the middle class. Rep. Pence said that expanding SCHIP this way would increase the cost of the program. He then said that this bill could potentially put low income children at risk of not getting the coverage they need.
Rep. Flake was the next person to talk. He spoke at length about the stimulus package, especially focusing on this bill driving up our deficit. He then said that the percentage of the deficit as compared to GDP was “well north of 5 percent”. Rep. Flake then noted that economic growth is essentially impossible anytime that the deficit is more than 5 percent of GDP.
SIDENOTE: I’ve seen reports where it’s possible the deficit will be 10+ percent of GDP.
I asked the first question. Here’s what I asked: Do you know what the composition of the stimulus package is, what percentage of it involves needed infrastructure projects, what percentage of it is just wasteful spending?
Rep. Pence said that they don’t know what will be in the bill. He said that he’s heard the bill will be light on tax cuts and heavy on spending. He then said that the bill will be at least $850,000,000.
Redstate’s Brian Faugnan asked about the bailout package too. Rep. Pence mentioned that Rep. Peter Roskam was working with other House Republicans on putting an alternative to stimulus package that’s currently being put together. Roskam said that there’s a sense that this package is anything but finalized. Speculation exists that that’s because liberal Democrats think the package should grow.
(This could be known as the ‘hanging the ornaments on the Christmas tree’ phase.)
Another blogger identified himself (I apologize for not catching this gentleman’s name) as an entrepreneur whose business takes him around the world. This blogger said that Estonia’s entire tax code was 50 pages. He talked about “jurisdictional competitiveness”, then asked if that might be an issue that the House GOP would address sometime soon. He said that this issue, if not addressed properly, would make American companies less competitive around the world.
The Congresscritters assembled there said that that’s definitely something that needs to be dealt with intelligently because we can’t afford to not be competitive on the world marketplace.
I was able to ask another question after the first round of questioning. It, too, dealt with the stimulus package, this time dealing with the issue of inflation. Both Rep. Flake and Rep. Pence said that this legislation could cause inflation to spike, thereby making job growth and economic recovery more difficult.
I was impressed with the fact that they’re working on putting alternatives to the Democrats’ proposals together. They clearly aren’t planning on having a squishy agenda. They plan on putting forth a robust, muscular agenda based on free market principles and fiscal restraint.
If they follow through on that agenda, which I think is likely, they will have gone a long ways to restoring the GOP brand of fiscal responsibility and limited government. That will be most welcome to GOP activists everywhere.
Technorati Tags: Mike Pence, Jeff Flake, Peter Roskam, Lynn Jenkins, Stimulus Package, Inflation, Job Growth, Economic Recovery, SCHIP, Pork, Taxes
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog