WASHINGTON, DC – At a weekly press conference Tuesday with Republican leaders, Speaker of the House John Boehner previewed the upcoming House vote on the pro-growth American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act and, with time running short, called on Senate Democrats to offer a responsible plan to extend the payroll tax cut for a full year. Following are video and text of Congressman Boehner’s remarks:
“We continue to listen to the concerns of the American people and as a result our focus continues to be on getting our economy moving again and creating jobs. As you all know, the House has passed 30 jobs bills, 27 of them remain in the United States Senate. In the coming weeks, we’ll pass the [American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act] – reform the way we deal with energy issues on federal lands, and reform the way we deal with infrastructure. Both of the sections of this bill will help create more American jobs.
“In addition to that we have significant concerns about whether Senate Democrats are really willing to step up and work with House Republicans on the payroll tax cut bill. As you know, the House did its work last December. We did what the president asked for – we extended unemployment insurance with reforms, we extended the payroll tax credit for a year, and we dealt with the so-called ‘doc fix’ for those doctors who deal with Medicare patients and their reimbursements.
“All of this spending was offset. It was offset because, one, we don’t want to drain the Social Security Trust Fund. And secondly, we don’t want to add to our already-over $1 trillion budget deficit. And so we’ve done our work, and as you all know, the Senate could only produce a two-month extension and so we’ve been in conference trying to work out our differences.
“But what’s pretty clear is that Senate Democrats have never come to the table with a plan to offset this new spending that they’re all for. And I’m concerned about the actions that they’ve taken. Chairman Baucus has … a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee today to mark up offsets for their version of the highway bill. And if they’ve got time to find offsets for a highway bill, where’s the time being spent in terms of developing offsets to pay for the payroll tax cut extension that they want to extend for the balance of this year? We want to extend this program, but … this spending ought to be offset with reductions in spending elsewhere.”
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