In an abbreviated replay of past Republican pre-election agendas, House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday laid out a plan for the GOP to boost economic growth with a combination of old-school conservative policies such as reforming taxes and cutting spending as well as newer priorities.
Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington as Congress prepares to leave Washington, Boehner set out five points for his party to follow in the 114th Congress to promote a “solid foundation for growth and mobility.”
They include spending cuts and tax simplification — “let’s fix the whole tax code. Make it pro-growth and pro-family. Bring down the rates for every American, clear out all the loopholes,” said Boehner, according to prepared text.
His plan also relies on other standards of the Republican playbook: An overhaul of regulations, and tort reform. “We let anybody in America sue anybody any day, for any damn reason at all,” Boehner said.
But his remarks also touched on improving education through school choice, a relatively new point of focus. “Let’s give more poor children and their parents a chance to find the better schools they need and deserve,” Boehner said.
In response to questions following his address, he also expressed support for antipoverty measures recently highlighted by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, such as sentencing reform and improving tax credits for poor families.
“I think it’s our obligation to help provide the tool for them to use to bring them into the mainstream of American society,” Boehner said of Ryan’s antipoverty plans. “I do think that his idea on the Earned Income Tax Credit has a lot of merit.”
Announced before the GOP’s possible pickup of the Senate in November, Boehner’s agenda is less detailed than past efforts. In 1994, insurgent Republicans published a detailed “Contract with America.” In 2010 Boehner and other members of GOP leadership rolled out a similar document, the “Pledge to America,” in a carefully staged event in a Virginia hardware store.
His outline Thursday, which he delivered alone, instead stuck to broad themes and included minimal criticism of the Obama administration — and no mention of Obamacare. In opening, he focused on the recent success of U.S. domestic energy production. “In my view, America’s energy boom presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset our economy from the bottom up,” the speaker said.
He also claimed a number of successes for the House GOP since the 2010 takeover, from banning earmarks to reaching free trade agreements, passing an overhaul of federal student loans, and having “protected 99 percent of the American people from permanent tax increases” in negotiations over taxes with President Obama.
On tax reform, Boehner embraced his tax committee chief’s plan a little more closely than he has in the past.
In response to a question from the audience, Boehner praised the comprehensive tax reform draft legislation released by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan earlier in the year – a bill that received a cool reception from many Republicans, and which Boehner mostly downplayed.
“It’s been out there since March, and I’ve been shocked about how little I’ve heard about it,” Boehner said Thursday. “I would have thought I’d hear more complaints,” he said of the bill, which would have closed tax preferences and loopholes to lower rates.
“At some point you’ve got to lay out your ideas in writing and let people engage with it,” Boehner said of tax reform.
Camp is retiring at the end of the year. He is expected to be succeeded by Ryan, who is currently the chairman of the Budget Committee.
