On January 29, President Obama visited the GOP House Issues Conference and held a town meeting of sorts with Republican officials. While most news channels did cover at least a part of the meeting I felt it was important to go back and take a look at some of the transcript.

Let me first say that President Obama articulates his ideas very accurately. He knows what he is talking about. I just don't agree with his opinions.

Here are a few sections for your review...

"There was an interesting headline in CNN today:  "Americans disapprove of stimulus, but like every policy in it."  And there was a poll that showed that if you broke it down into its component parts, 80 percent approved of the tax cuts, 80 percent approved of the infrastructure, 80 percent approved of the assistance to the unemployed."

...which once again proves if you ask the same question a million different ways you can get the answer you want.

"At this point, we know that the budget surpluses of the '90s occurred in part because of the pay-as-you-go law, which said that, well, you should pay as you go and live within our means, just like families do every day.  Twenty-four of you voted for that, and I appreciate it.  And we were able to pass it in the Senate yesterday."

...which you passed after spending more than any other president in history after only one year.

"And as I said in the State of the Union speech, there's not just a deficit of dollars in Washington, there is a deficit of trust.  So I hope you'll support my proposal to make all congressional earmarks public before they come to a vote.  And let's require lobbyists who exercise such influence to publicly disclose all their contacts on behalf of their clients, whether they are contacts with my administration or contacts with Congress."

...make earmarks public after we've given hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars away in earmarks to bribe healchare votes. Get tough on lobbyists after Obama promised they would not be in his cabinet, and then made a few exceptions.

"If anyone here truly believes our health insurance system is working well for people, I respect your right to say so, but I just don't agree. I mean, to be fair, the status quo is working for the insurance industry, but it's not working for the American people.  It's not working for our federal budget."

...and it should not be. Healthcare should not be part of the federal budget and it has absolutely no constitutional authority to be a part of the federal budget. Also, I believe the system is working. Is it perfect? No. However while the costs are rising I think the real issue is priorities. The same people complaining about the cost could easily drop their cell phone bills, cable bills and a hundred other expenses that are much less important than their health or the health of their children.

"We had lost 650,000 jobs in December.  I'm assuming you're not faulting my policies for that.  We had lost, it turns out, 700,000 jobs in January, the month I was sworn in.  I'm assuming it wasn't my administration's policies that accounted for that.  We lost another 650,000 jobs the subsequent month, before any of my policies had gone into effect."

...except you were a leader in the Democratically controlled Senate which had been setting those policies for the past 2 years.

"And then the last portion of it was infrastructure which, as I said, a lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon-cuttings for the same projects that you voted against."

...which is true and I've seen it. Republicans need to stop trying to gain votes and stick to their ideals. If they can find them again.

"So I think that we've got to look at what specific proposals you're putting forward, and -- this is the last point I'll make -- if you're calling for just across-the-board tax cuts, and then on the other hand saying that we're somehow going to balance our budget, I'm going to want to take a look at your math and see how that works, because the issue of deficit and debt is another area where there has been a tendency for some inconsistent statements."

...and he's exactly right. Yes, we need tax cuts, but we need deep spending cuts before we can do so. We have to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in unconstitutional socialist programs.

Stay tuned for the next installment.