Marathon Pundit: Boehner wants to hold Obama to the C-SPAN pledge

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Boehner wants to hold Obama to the C-SPAN pledge

On the campaign trail, then-Sen. Barack Obama promised the American people at least eight times that House and Senate conferences would be televised on C-SPAN. I noted a couple of days ago that as a member of the upper chamber, Obama could have initiated the process.

Now the Democrats want to transform one-sixth of our economy, wouldn't now be the time to take the cameras inside the backrooms?

C-SPAN thinks so, and so does House Minority Leader John Boehner.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement based on news reports that President Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have cut a deal to skip a formal conference on their health care legislation – a flat violation of the president's promise that such negotiations would be broadcast on C-SPAN for the American people to see:

Something as critical as the Democrats' health care bill, with its Medicare cuts and tax hikes, shouldn't be slapped together in a shady backroom deal. The American people simply won't stand for it. And President Obama knows that, which is why he pledged during last year's campaign that such negotiations would take place in public, on C-SPAN. In the same spirit, Rep. Vern Buchanan has introduced a resolution requiring the negotiations be public.

But now it seems that Washington Democrats plan to ignore the president's commitment, and Speaker Pelosi is even laughing about it. Let's be clear: skipping a real, open conference would shut out the American people and break one of President Obama's signature campaign promises. It would be a disgrace – to the Democratic leaders if they do it, and to the president who broke his word. That's no laughing matter.

NOTE: Yesterday, House Republican Leader Boehner sent a letter to C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb, accepting Lamb's offer to televise the health care Conference on his network. You can read that letter here.