Menendez, Cornyn, Sessions and Van Hollen on NBC's Meet the Press-July 18, 2010

Beltway Happenings

July 18, 2010--The chairmen of the four major party congressional campaign committees appeared together on NBC's "Meet the Press." It is 107 days until Election Day, and host David Gregory opened the program pointing to "what could be a grim Fall" for the Democrats. Gregory noted, "The Cook Political Report identifies 64 House seats now held by Democrats that could fall to a Republican. The GOP needs 39 to retake the majority."

NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (TX) decried "a big government agenda and emphasized "we should make sure we live within our means." NRSC Chairman Sen. John Cornyn (TX) said that "what people are tired of is the runaway spending and the debt." Instead, Cornyn said, people want "a positive agenda--smaller government, living with their means." Asked whether Republicans would "campaign to repeal health care if you...have majority status," Cornyn said, "I think repeal and replace it with a commonsense solution that will bend the cost curve." "This bill has almost no reform," he said.

DSCC chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ) said that "this will be a choice election" and that "the policies that they [Republicans] espouse that are in essence Bush's policies." Likewise, DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (MD) asked, "Why in the world would we want to go back to the same economic agenda that created that mess, that, that lost jobs for eight years? Menendez also accused Republicans of obstructionism, stating, "In essence, they have used the filibuster in an unprecedented way in the nation's history to stop progress on everything that we have tried to do." [transcript]