IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

 RNC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL STEELE PRESS CONFERENCE CALL ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S HEALTH CARE TAXES

 September 29, 2009

To Listen To Audio Of Full Conference Call, Please Visit: http://www.gop.com/media/audio/092909Steele.mp3

 Selected Excerpts

CHAIRMAN MICHAEL STEELE: Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I have just a quick comment or two and then we’ll be happy to throw it over for some questions. I think that as we get into the fall season here we really have a chance to kind of look back over the past summer and spring. My assessment of where we are at this point is, I’ve watched the president move from stimulus then lurch into Cap-and-Trade and then into health care. And now into pitching the Olympics in Copenhagen and my concern is, throughout all of, this there has been loss of a serious discussion of what’s at the heart of frustrating the American people, and that is an economy that has not settled down – an economy that is still losing jobs – an economy that is still, I think, terribly close to the precipice at least for the comfort for the vast majority of small business owners and moms and pops out there.

While I was heartened to see the president last week shift a little bit to start talking about the economy, I’m hoping we can have a more serious discussion going forward. Because, everything else we do pivots off our ability to create wealth in this economy, for small businesses to grow and prosper and when you look at the health care bill that’s being proposed, whether its Baucus or H.R. 3200 or any number of other bills that are working their way through the formulation process, the impact economically on families and businesses is huge.

You’re talking about the Democrat Party right now is poised to position itself to raise taxes during a recession, which is the most lame-brain economic stimulus you can come up with, because there is no stimulus. On small business, you’re killing job creation. Again, this whole thing started with the administration coming in saying we had to create jobs, we’ve got almost 8.5%-10% unemployment, that we had to stimulate the business community by providing capital and credit. If anything we have shrunk the ability to access capital and credit. Seven hundred and eighty seven billion dollars worth of stimulus out on the street, 15% of it is only being put to use right now. So, at least give me the rest of it back if you’re not going to use it before you spend it.

Also, I think when you look at the parent ship right now over the states - increasing their burden particularly their share of health care costs. I can tell you as a former state office holder, it is challenge enough to try to balance your budgets in tough times, but when the federal government is giving you additional unfunded mandates and shifting their costs to the states it exacerbates the problems. Now you’re not only looking at raising taxes at the federal level, but you’re also looking at states that may already have raised taxes as well. That’s a double whammy for, again the small business owner and the tax-payer out there.

On the poor, individual mandates forces people with limited income to pay excessive fines. I think that’s not smart economic policy.

We should be developing a national poverty strategy that puts people, very much as we did in the 1990s working with Republican leadership to create welfare reform, moving people off welfare to work. We should also find ways to move people from poverty to prosperity by a combination of educational and job opportunities particularly in our lesser utilized communities where businesses have not planted any roots in a long, long time. To incentivize them to go back and invest in those communities, that helps create the kind of stimulation of the economy and individual pocket books that will help the poor in the long run. Again, if you’re part of a health care strategy going to force people with limited income to pay excessive funds because they can’t afford to pay for your health care, that to me is not very smart economic strategy.

On medical devices this I find the most stunning, that we’re now looking at taxing wheelchairs and other devices that cost more than one-hundred bucks, this to me is yet again not the way you stimulate an economy that is in recession. I think one of the more damaging proposals is one that cuts to the heart of the very communities that are out there helping the poor and helping to create opportunities for people and that’s our charitable communities – whether it’s a church or a private organization that provides the kind of help, or helping hand, to those who need it most. To require through the tax policy further reductions in the deductions that people can make to charities, again bad economic policy.

So, as I look at the summer and spring and now in the fall the question that keeps jumping into my head is where’s the focus? Is the focus health care? Is the focus Cap-and-Trade? Is the focus energy? Is the focus job creation? I think the president needs to along with the members in Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, to tell the American people what their focus is going to be going into the fall and next year because I don’t see tell tale signs of economic strength but rather continued weakness in the job market, continued weakness in the Wall Streets and Main streets of America that create the wealth that we need to stimulate the economy. Just a few thoughts that I have on this health care train that’s moving somewhere. We don’t know where we don’t know what’s on it we don’t know how much it costs, but we do know that inside of it are a great deal of I think onerous economic penalties on businesses and families that will not hasten recovery but prolong recession.

BETH FOUHY (ASSOCIATED PRESS): Good Morning Chairman Steele thanks for taking my call. Just to clarify you said that you’re concerned that the president and the Democrats have lost focus and you did reference the president’s upcoming trip to Copenhagen as an example of perhaps where he’s lost focused I just wanted to clarify if indeed that’s the case, if you feel that’s another example of him not concentrating on jobs and the economy and health care and so forth.

CHAIRMAN STEELE: I do very much Beth, I think while it’s a noble idea for the president to want to pitch his home city Chi-town for the Olympics, and of course America would be more than honored to host the Olympics in the future, I think that at a time of war, I think at a time of recession, at a time where Americans have expressed rather significantly their concerns and frustrations over the course of the spring and summer about health care, about the economy, about a host of domestic issues, even international issues, I think that this trip while nice is not necessary for the president. I think the first lady would have been and should have been the lead here and let her go and sell Chicago. But the goal should be creating, not job opportunities seven years from now but job opportunities today. I think what the president is doing is not necessarily helpful and does not in my view, instill the confidence in the American people that the focus is on job, wealth creation and moving us beyond recession to prosperity.