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Rep. John A. Boehner: Good morning and this is John Boehner.

N.Z. Bear: Representative, why don't we dive right in and we can get started. Things can be fairly simple here, what we would hope for and suggest is if you can start off with some remarks yourself and then we can move on to questions and answers and we will try to keep things nice and move along and not step on everybody as we're talking. With that, I'd like to thank you for this, for taking the time to meet with us and I'll turn it over to you.

Rep. John A. Boehner: Well thank you, I want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. I think you realize that this is a critical time for the Republican Conference and the conversations we are having are some of the most important since we took the majority in 1994. The course that we will chart, I think will affect the party and the American people for years to come.

Well now let's get this right down to the heart of the matter. The government is simply too big and controls way too much power. You know, that kind of power is going to lead to abuses, as we hold the power to make or break industries, organizations, and private entities, and frankly I think it must change. Of course, you know, anybody can say that, anybody can sit here and harp on big Government, and I've been doing it since I've gotten into politics. But the question is, who offers a real vision and a plan for reform. And I think most of you know I've developed a leadership plan called, "For a Majority that Matters." And this document outlines the problems, as I see them and offers suggestions for reform and a renewal of the Republican Conference. And if you read that document just understand, its not just a fancy document a fancy plan, this is the leadership model that I've used to run my business before I got here, that I've used to run my personal office for the last 15 years, and the same model that I use as Chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, to guide our members as we develop legislation.

One of the reforms I've suggested is enacting a ban on unauthorized earmarks for private entities that serve private interests at the expense of public interests. And since I came to Congress in 1991, I've refused to brink pork projects back to my Ohio district. It's refreshing to hear finally that, that this somewhat popular, it's becoming popular now because, frankly I've taken my lumps from my own constituents over the years. I've told them in 1990 when I was a first time candidate for Congress that if they thought that my job was to rob the public treasury on their behalf, they were voting for the wrong guy. And I've kept that commitment all the way now for 15 years. And so, I think that we have got to deal with earmarks. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our budget woes. I think we need to have a serious discussion about entitlement reform and as I mentioned in my document, we need to take a serious look at reforming the Congressional Budget Act, which right now discourages any sense of fiscal responsibility.

Now I think another major goal is that we have to restore trust amongst our members, our leaders, and the American people. Working together, I firmly believe we can be successful in moving forward with an ambitious agenda aimed at enhancing freedom, security, and prosperity for all Americans.

But this race as I close, this race is about one issue and that is leadership. Which of the three of us that are in this race today have the ability, the determination, and the know how to lead our party to be more ambitious, to be more bold, and to find what Ronald Reagan used to describe as a shining city on a hill. We need a common vision of who we are, why we're here, and what it is we're going to do on behalf of the American people that sent us here. I think I'm that leader. With that, fire away.

La Shawn Barber: Ok, this is La Shawn Barber right out of the gate again. Why did you vote against last month's bill cracking down on illegal immigration?

Rep. John A. Boehner: I am, I am for strengthening the border, making it as difficult as possible for those to get here and those that are here illegally. There are two issues that caused me to vote against the bill; one is that my committee traditionally has had jurisdiction over the employment issues, employment verification issues would be one and it took me two weeks to convince the Parliamentarian's office to give me, my jurisdiction a sequential referral of the bill and finally they gave me a 24 hours, they gave me 24 hours, which clearly is not enough time to do anything. But the real big issue is that in the bill there is a huge unfunded mandate to require employers to verify all existing employees. I have no problem having all employers verify new hires. But this unfunded mandate of trying to verify all existing employees, I think is a big unfunded mandate. I don't think we have the capability of doing it. We certainly don't have the capability of doing it today and so I had an amendment with Chris Cannon and Steve Chabot to take that issue out of the bill. They would not allow it to be offered on the floor, debated, or voted upon. And I gotta tell ya, it really got under my skin. I voted to build the fence, I voted to strengthen, every amendment to strengthen the bill I voted for. But it was this one issue that I just thought didn't make a lot of sense and wanted to offer this amendment and they wouldn't let me offer it, so at the end I decided the best way to raise my protest was to vote no.

La Shawn Barber: Well, that definitely helps matters. I just thought you wholesale were against cracking down on illegal immigration, favoring George Bush's amnesty for illegal aliens plan. That clarifies the matter …

Rep. John A. Boehner: No. I'm not, I'm not for amnesty in any way, shape, or form.

N.Z. Bear: Congressman, this is N.Z. from The Truth Laid Bear. You mentioned on Hugh Hewitt's show that I believe you said you'd support a regulation to require legislation being posted on the internet and you also mentioned that you were rushed into the review of the immigration reform. Would you support a rules change that would require all members to sign a statement that they've actually read legislation before they vote on it?

Rep. John A. Boehner: I think that members need to do a better job of reviewing legislation. And understand that even if you required members to read all bills, I don't know if it would help much, because when you try to read these bills when they refer to this section of existing law and that section of existing law, I'm not sure that you learn a whole lot. So requiring them to actually read it, I just don't think it's practical. But I do believe this, that if as a general rule we would require that bills sit for 72 hours after they come out of conference, members and their staff would have ample time to review those bills and I think that would help us greatly. And I say as a general rule because I'm going to be very clear, those of you that know a little bit about me, I like to say it the way it is and I mean what I say and I say what I mean. There are times when that just isn't practical. You know you can have an emergency spending bill, you can have some of the issues that happened after 9/11, and having a 70, requiring a bill to sit there for 72 hours, is just not practical. But at a minimum, at a minimum even in those circumstances, members ought to have 24 hours to review a bill in an emergency situation.

Mike Krempasky: Congressman, this is Mike Krempasky. I just wanted to ask you two questions if I could. One, and I applaud you for your reform plan, but first I wanted to talk about this question of Government has gotten too big and way too much power, but at the same time you voted for the largest expansion for government spending in 40 years as represented by the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill. And I wonder how you square those two statements because it's pretty clear that, you know, there was obviously some strong arming there and arm twisting and at the end, the tax payers lost out.

Rep. John A. Boehner: Nobody twisted my arm there, I can tell you that. It was one; I can go back to my 25 years of elected office at the local, state and here in Washington for the last 15. There probably aren't five bills that I've had to dwell on, on my vote. But this Medicare Prescription Drug Bill was one of them. I had very serious reservations then and I still do, that we are handing our kids and grandkids a big bill. On the other hand there are some serious reforms of the underlying Medicare Program that were contained in that bill, that people like Jim McCreary, Paul Ryan, Bill Thomas, the Chairman of the Committee would argue will have the effect of bringing more market based reforms to Medicare as this all gets implemented, the reforms are implemented in the basic Medicare program. And I had to make a choice, it was a difficult choice. I did vote in favor of the bill. I'm still watching it closely. If you were to ask me the question, but you haven't, but I'll pose it to myself. Are you completely comfortable with the vote that you cast? You know even to this day I'm still wondering did I do the right thing. But I cast the vote I thought at the time and I still believe at the time, even now that I would cast the vote the same way, because of the underlying reforms that are contained in the bill.

Mike Krempasky: Even knowing that the cost estimates we were lead to believe before the vote are nothing more than almost made out of whole cloth?

Rep. John A. Boehner: The cost estimates that were established after the bill was passed, that showed much higher costs have now come the other way and we're starting to see estimates that the program will cost less than what was indicated the day, the night we signed, the night we passed the bill. I think the market forces contained in this, both in the Medicare Prescription Drug section itself and the underlying market based reforms in the underlying program, are beginning to show a real improvement in the delivery of these services at lower costs.

Mike Krempasky: Well sir, the market forces aren't even in place until 2010 through the pilot programs.

Rep. John A. Boehner: When you look at the cost of the Medicare, I mean the Prescription Drug Program itself, the estimates of its cost are now below what they were the night that we voted on the final bill. The competition that's in the Medicare, in the Prescription Drug section of this, the competition amongst those in the business is working.

Mike Krempasky: Very good, well I'll let everyone else hop in there.

Ed Morrissey: This is Ed Morrissey from Captain's Quarters. Representative, thank you for being with us today and a couple of quick questions here. First off, in terms of reform for congress in lobbying, with lobbyist reform in general. How important do you think it is to bring in the Democrats in any potential solution? And to what extent are you willing to go to make that sort of thing happen?

Rep. John A. Boehner: Well to the extent that it affects all members and all staff on both sides of the aisle. They certainly have a right to participate. You know, I sit down on my own committee and work with Democrats, but before I do I have a clear vision of what I want to accomplish. I have clear principles that I'm going to follow and if they want to work with me around my vision or around the principles that I have outlined, they're more than welcome to do so.

Ed Morrissey: One quick follow-up on this, it's somewhat related. The BCRA was sold as a way of getting the money out of politics ..

Rep. John A. Boehner: (laughs) Right.

Ed Morrissey: Can we look forward to a repeal of the BCRA since obviously it's failed miserably at doing that?

Rep. John A. Boehner: I voted against BCRA ..

Ed Morrissey: Yes sir. And thank you for that too by the way..

Rep. John A. Boehner: And I voted for the Doolittle Proposal, I think it was. That we still had limits but every dime spent trying to influence an election would be required to be disclosed. I think sunlight is the best disinfectant and frankly if you look at the state of Virginia, their election laws, there are no limits, there are no bans on corporate contributions, but what they do require is every dime that's given, or spent be disclosed. I think that is the absolute best way to deal with the whole campaign system. The idea that we're going to stop money flowing to power is just, it's laughable. It violates the rule of nature. The federal government is going to spend 2.6 trillion dollars of the American people's money this year. And as a result we're going to have an awful lot of people in here wanting some chunk of it. That is tremendous power. It's going to attract money. And the only way, the only way to control it is to require it to be disclosed and if it's disclosed the American people can judge for themselves and take the appropriate action.

N.Z. Bear: Congressman, N.Z from Truth Laid Bear again. A similar reform related question. Would you support a law requiring that for each act of Congress, including appropriations, the law contains statements identifying the authority within the Constitution that grants the Congress to pass that law?

Rep. John A. Boehner: That'd be fine with me.

Jon Henke: Congressman, this is Jon Henke from the QandO Blog. Ah, in general you hear a lot of dissatisfaction on the right with the way the Bush Administration and the Republican Party in general is approaching the concept of limited government. There seems to be, or has been a great abandonment since 1994. There's a lot of lip service but nobody actually does anything about it. What actual proposal would you bring to the table as Majority Leader to bring back limited government.

Rep. John A. Boehner: Let's just use the title of the office that I'm seeking. Majority Leader. The job of Majority Leader is to lead the majority. And I was a big reformer back in the early 90's, exposing the House Bank scandal, the restaurant scandal, the Post Office scandal. I helped create the vision for 1994, part of which became the Contract With America. And what we need today is a common vision that we can show the American people who we are, why we're here and what it is we hope to accomplish. Our version of Ronald Reagan's shining city on the hill, that regardless of what he was doing, he could always refer back to the longer term, broad effort that he was engaged in. And while I'm Conservative, while I have very clear principals that I operate by, what I need to do if I'm elected Majority Leader is to help lead that effort to bring this bold vision of where we're going to our conference. But they have to develop it on their own. I mean I can help, I can lead, but they have to develop it. We after the last few years lost our way. We've lost our way because we've not taken the time to sit down and talk with each other to build this common vision. As a result, I think we've lost confidence and we've clearly lost our courage to deal with the big, bold things the American people expect us to deal with.

I'll give you one example. You know, we haven't passed it yet, but I would think in the next couple of weeks we'll pass the Deficit Reduction Act, which is going to save 35 to 40 billion dollars worth of spending over the next five years, a mere pittance. Over 40% of that savings package came out of my committee, alright. But we're not even nipping around the edges of this tsunami that's coming at us. When you begin to look at the changing demographics in America and you begin to understand that the largest generation in American history is on the verge of retirement, followed by succeeding smaller generations of Americans, and we're going to live far longer than any generation in American history thus far. And the impact on American society and more specifically, the impact on our budget process is going to be overwhelming. We've not had the confidence and the courage to begin to seriously to take on the sustainability or the solvency of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. And we've always looked at these as a year project or two year project, frankly these are long term projects that we have to lay the groundwork for in order to make them happen.

Jon Henke: What bold policy vision do you have to take that on?

Rep. John A. Boehner: I think that by going through a process of having a common vision of, again who we are, why we're here, and where we're going, we can unite our party here, we can build confidence and courage amongst our members to do the big things the American people expect us to do. And frankly there's just nothing bigger coming at us right now, nothing than this huge budget problem that if we don't, if we don't fix it we will bankrupt our kids and their kids.

Jon Henke: Congressman one more thing, I just want to thank you for that remark. I just want to ask you if you are familiar with or if you have a position on Congressman Jeb Hensarling's Family Budget Protection Act that he submitted as a way to try to reform the budget process.

Rep. John A. Boehner: There are, Hensarlings got a bill, there are a number of bills to reform the Budget Act, alright. And while I'm supportive of many of them, just understand something, we're dealing with the symptoms of the problem, alright. If you step back and look at the budget, yes there's been a higher increase then what should be on the discretionary side. But the big drivers, the big drivers of the budget, you can look at it in three or you can look at it in five; Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the big ones. You've got unfunded federal retiree pensions and you've got interest on the national debt. They are driving the budget today and every year in the future they will drive the budget deficit even higher. And until we get serious about addressing the big three or the big five, take your pick, we're kidding ourselves.

John Hawkins: Congressman, John Hawkins, Right Wing News. Question for you then a follow-up. You said you had a part in preparing the Contract With America. Would you support term limits and a balanced budget amendment? Two parts of the contract that were never implemented.

Rep. John A. Boehner: I voted for the Balanced Budget Amendment, as a State Legislator and frankly voted for it as a member of Congress every time it's come up and am a big believer in it. The term limits portion of the contract I voted for in 1995, because it was part of the contract. Frankly I've watched the effect of term limits in my home state of Ohio and think that it's a disaster. It has moved power away from the State Legislators, to lobbyists, to the administration, to those that have been around town forever. And, I think, I mean an utter disaster. I think we have term limits for Congress and Legislators every two years when you run for election. And so the term limits part of it I would not support.

John Hawkins: And the follow-up question. This morning Mr. Shadegg said he would support a revise of the Medicare Bill to include means testing. Would you also favor doing that?

Rep. John A. Boehner: Absolutely. I've been, frankly I'm for means testing of Medicare and Social Security. That in and of itself will not solve the problem, but it is one potential solution that I think makes a lot of sense given the sustainability of those programs.

Jon Henke: One last thing Congressman and it's not a fair question but, if you're not to be the Majority Leader, who do you like between Blunt and Shadegg?

Rep. John A. Boehner: (laughing) You're right, that would be a really unfair question. Ah listen …

Jon Henke: You can punt on that one.

Rep. John A. Boehner: Well, no, no listen …

Jon Henke: And the reason I ask and let me just say, when it comes to the things that everyone says are most important, the idea of reforming the way the Republican act in Congress, it seems to me there's not much daylight between you and Congressman Shadegg. I know there are issues about travel and things like that, but the commitment you both have seems to be much more serious than Congressman Blunt.

Rep. John A. Boehner: Well yeah, I like John and all you have to do is go look at the statement that I put out when Shadegg got in the race, where I welcomed him to the race. I think his involvement in the race will have the race become a discussion more about reforming government and addressing the problems, than what we would have had without him. And so I'm glad that he's in the race and he's a friend and you're right, there's not a great deal of daylight that you'll see between us.

N.Z. Bear: Congressman, I'll toss in one last question. This is N.Z. again. From a different subject: foreign policy and security. Are you satisfied with the evolution of the Department of Homeland Security? And do you believe that that department and the government in general are going in the right direction to protect the American people?

Rep. John A. Boehner: Well, there certainly have been significant improvements in Homeland Security. But just understand, to take 22 federal agencies and roll them together in one department and to think you're going to have a fully operational Homeland Security Department is not realistic. We are looking at what I would describe as a 5 to 10 year process of rebuilding the culture, rebuilding the infrastructure were they can actually talk to each other and where they can work together. A long period of integration so that the kind of homeland security that most Americans expect will actually be there. But it hasn't happened overnight and frankly it's a work in progress, but we ought to stay at it.

John Hawkins: Congressman, John Hawkins, Right Wing News. One more question for you. Earlier this morning Mr. Shadegg said he would supported having, he would support a guest worker program, but he thought anyone that was in the country illegally today, should have to go back home before they are allowed to apply for it. Is that something you would agree with?

Rep. John A. Boehner: Yeah, I would agree. You know I've been on, beyond being on the Educational Workforce, I'm on the House Agriculture Committee. You know, I've worked to try to fix the H2A program for the 15 years that I've been here. Because it's cumbersome, it doesn't work well and because of that it puts pressure on some growers to just say, the heck with it, I'm just going to hire illegals. But I do think that if you don't require them to go home, to sign up, I think what you do is, it almost becomes a backdoor amnesty program. So, I'm in agreement with him.

Jon Henke: Mr. Congressman, on the NSA warrantless surveillance issue, do you believe the President has the inherent authority to do what he has been doing? Or do you think we need to codify the process somehow?

Rep. John A. Boehner: I think that it's unclear to me. Now the President, clearly, and his people believe that they have the ability to do this and frankly I'm very interested in hearings to see in how, I mean they've attempted to justify it, but frankly I want to make, if it's not clear in the law or Constitution today, it ought to be made clear in a law or the Constitution that he can do this and what the limits are. But at this point, I'm not, it's not clear in my mind under that he has, under what authority he has to get it done.

Jon Henke: Would you support an investigation to look into that question?

Rep. John A. Boehner: I would. I'd think it would be of interest of all Americans to get to the bottom of how does this happen? Under what authority? And what are the protections?

N.Z. Bear: Congressman, N.Z. a follow-up on that. You know I agree with the goal. How do you support that as a Republican and somebody interested in national security, without allowing the Democratic side to take it into simply a partisan Bush bashing fest?

Rep. John A. Boehner: Well that's always, that's always part of the problem here but, you know if you have a hearing everybody gets to see it, gets to hear it, and we can get to the bottom of it and frankly, I don't think the Administration has got anything to hide. And frankly, if I were them, I would welcome it. But you know, somebody has to chair the committee or chair the operation who can keep it under control.

N.Z. Bear: Well Congressman, we've taken up a good chunk of your time …

Rep. John A. Boehner: Let me once again just say thanks for the opportunity, if you ever have questions, feel free to contact us. You're going to find that we're about the most open operation there is.




Thanks to Michael St. Ours for transcribing this session.