House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) still want transparency. But forget about that invitation to a televised bipartisan health care summit that Republicans shied away from after months of calling for more transparency and a seat at the table. The real issue, it would seem, is now more transparency on jobs.
The two Republican leaders wrote a letter to House Democratic leadership today, challenging them to a televised debate on jobs creation “in the interest of complete transparency.”
You may remember Boehner as the lawmaker who fretted that President Obama’s televised Feb. 25 health care reform summit might be some kind of “set-up” — after he’d demanded just that kind of transparency.
Cantor had also suggested that Republicans would bail on Obama’s televised bipartisan health care meeting if certain demands weren’t met. He later relented and said he’d “absolutely” attend.
Regardless, Republican leaders would like cameras around for a jobs talk, too. In their letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) today, Boehner and Cantor asked that Democrats follow the President’s precedent “and agree to participate in an open meeting focused on job creation and economic growth.”
They also took the opportunity to hit the Democrats on their $787 billion stimulus package:
It is unfortunate that there was neither a public discussion nor an opportunity for the American people — especially small business owners — to become more engaged in the discussion. Had there been such a discussion perhaps Congress would have produced a bill that more directly addressed our nation’s economic problems.
Boehner and Cantor added that “in the interest of complete transparency on the single most important issue of the day for most Americans, we ask that you join us for an open discussion so that we can begin to change a process that has not only polarized this Capitol building, but this country as well.”
Lack-of-self-awareness alert!
It wasn’t so long ago that Boehner — who had previously demanded the health care debate be televised on C-SPAN — worriedly asked whether a televised health care debate would be “a political event.”
He also said that he didn’t “want to walk into some set-up.”
Pelosi, for her part, sounds ready to accede to the GOP’s request. In an e-mail to Greg Sargent, a spokesperson for Pelosi said:
In her most recent meeting with Leader Boehner earlier this month, the Speaker raised the subject of jobs but did not receive a positive response. The Speaker welcomes the change in the Republican leadership and looks forward to a productive discussion on promoting jobs and economic recovery.
The full letter from Boehner and Cantor can be found here.
