GOP Want Debate on Jobs

House Republicans are taking a page from the president's playbook by challenging Democrats to a televised debate about job creation.


The top two Republicans in the House sent a letter Wednesday daring their counterparts — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — to engage in a public discussion over ways Congress can provide a boost to the economy.


Their call comes as Democrats struggle to find consensus on a job creation package and in advance of the Feb. 25 bipartisan health care summit.


"Clearly, we need a different approach to developing legislation that will get Americans back to work," Republican leader John Boehner and party Whip Eric Cantor wrote to Pelosi and Hoyer. "Therefore, 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."


Their call for an open discussion echoes President Barack Obama's invitation to congressional leaders to hold a health care debate next week at Blair House. That event stems from a recent back and forth between Obama and House Republicans. The president earned praise from the left and the right for his lengthy, candid exchange with Republicans during their annual issues conference in Baltimore late last month.


The White House caught Republicans off guard by asking the GOP to open the normally closed-door question-and-answer session to television cameras and reporters who are normally ushered from the room after the president speaks.


The two parties have been at loggerheads over the economy — and everything else — since Obama took the oath of office, when Republicans refused to support his almost $800 billion economic stimulus package, arguing it was too expensive and would prove ineffective. On Wednesday — the anniversary of its enactment — Democrats and Republicans engaged in yet another public relations blitz about whether the massive package actually spurred job growth.


"There are no doubt significant differences between our respective approaches to create jobs, as was evident during the stimulus debate last year," Boehner and Cantor said in their letter.


"Though we had different philosophical approaches, 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," the Republicans wrote. "Had there been such a discussion, perhaps Congress would have produced a bill that more directly addressed our nation’s economic problems."


House Democrats passed a $154 billion jobs bill in December that used $75 billion from the Wall Street bailout package to improve highways and help cash-strapped communities pay for teachers, police officers and firefighters. Republicans say that that package "continued the failed policies of the first stimulus" because it "was drafted without Republican input." As a result, every Republican voted against it, along with 38 Democrats.


Senate Democrats offered a competing measure last week, but Majority Leader Harry Reid immediately scaled it back, setting the stage for yet another policy fight between Democrats in the two chambers.


With the letter from Boehner and Cantor, House Republicans are trying to insert themselves into that debate.


The Republican leaders also took a veiled shot at members of the majority by reminding them that Obama held open debates with the House GOP and Senate Democrats but not the Democratic Caucus.


"As you are no doubt aware, President Obama has recently held public forums with both House Republicans and Senate Democrats," the leaders wrote. "Though House Democrats have yet to participate in such a forum, we write to ask that you follow this precedent and agree to participate in an open meeting focused on job creation and economic growth between leaders of both parties in the House."