Hoyer: GOP 'Drove Our Economy Into a Ditch'

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer used a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday to blame Republicans for the economic pain felt by Americans, but also to outline the Democrats' legislative agenda for 2010, which he said is designed to lift the country out of the recession and get Americans back to work.

Hoyer began his remarks by describing a political culture under President Bush's administration "that thrived for too long on easy choices, on the philosophy of 'deficits don't matter,' publicly or personally; on entitlements, wars, tax cuts for the privileged, all paid for with borrowed cash to be paid by our children."

For years, Hoyer said, Republicans "drove our economy into a ditch. That failure is a fact." But "America's economic future is now the shared responsibility of both parties and the test on which we should be judged."

Hoyer called job creation congressional Democrats' "priority number one" for 2010, but added that "we must deal with our exploding debt." Americans are rightly worried about the spending levels in Washington, he said. "Democrats get it and we will do something about it."

To address the deficits and debt, he proposed "pay go," legislation, which would require Congress to identify a way to pay for any new program or tax cut before it's created; a commission to suggest ways to rein in entitlement spending; and called on Republicans to come up with their own ideas to balance the budget "instead of sitting on the sidelines."

Hoyer also rejected the idea that last year's lengthy health care reform debate distracted Democrats from dealing with the economy, describing health care reform as "a powerful response to economic insecurity" among Americans struggling to care for their families.

In 2010, Hoyer said, the House agenda would also include financial regulatory reform and energy regulatory reform legislation.

Finally, he hammered Republicans in the Senate for stalling legislation with their "use and abuse of the filibuster," a maneuver he blamed for transforming the upper chamber from George Washington's vision of a "cooling saucer" for the heated debate in the House into "the place where solutions to our nation's most pressing problems go into a deep freeze."

During the question-and-answer session with reporters, Hoyer left the door wide open for Democrats to use the reconciliation process to get some portions of health care reform through the Senate with a 51-vote majority, rather than the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster on larger pieces of legislation. He called the procedural maneuver "regular order" and said it was specifically designed "to make sure that the filibuster could not stop important action from happening."