Word: boehner
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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TIME: Some in the National Review and in other places have called you a caretaker in the role of Republican leader. How do you respond to that? Boehner: Oh, there's been a lot said over the last two weeks. Clearly, we've been through two very difficult cycles. If I thought that I was to blame for what happened over those last two cycles, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have run. I think we did our best considering the cards that we were dealt. And I believe that the cards that will be dealt...
TIME: So do you have a prediction about gaining back seats, taking back the House? Boehner: Oh, no, no, no. Let's just take this one day at a time...
TIME: Minority parties have tended to be invisible. How do you promote your agenda? Boehner: All you have to do is look at what happened over the last two years; we were hardly invisible. I think that we were the most effective minority party at least in the last 100 years in terms of what we were able to accomplish, whether it was in terms of stopping spending, the expansion of government-run health insurance, the big win that we had on lifting the ban on offshore drilling and drilling for oil and gas in the intermountain West...
TIME: The Blue Dog Democrats are also fiscal conservatives. Have you done any outreach to them on banding together on fiscal issues? Boehner: America is a center-right country...
TIME: Still? Boehner: Yes, no question about it. When you look at all the exit polling, Americans don't want bigger government; they don't want higher taxes. And frankly, I think the Congress is still a center-right Congress. And I do think there will still be some opportunities over the next two years to work with some of the more moderate Democrat members when it comes to the issues of spending and taxes...