House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Tuesday that Democrats will be using George W. Bush's record against Republicans in the midterm elections, and he's confident they will win.
"Returning to failed policies is not a productive option for this country. The policies we pursued in the '90s under Bill Clinton that were unanimously opposed by the Republicans led to the best economy, biggest job creation, and four years of balanced budgets. We're going to make that argument," Hoyer told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. "The policies we pursued succeeded and the policies that the Republicans still talk about returning to were demonstrably failed policies."
Hoyer cited the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, which shows voter confidence in Obama has reached an all-time low.
"I'm not happy about that. I think Americans are angry. They were angry in '06. They were angry in '08. They changed leadership. They're still angry. Their economy is still not working the way it should work. We agree with that." he said. "Unfortunately their anger -- which should be focused on not returning to the Bush, Boehner, McCain policies which plunged us into deep debt and resulted in the worst economy in the lifetime of almost every American under 90 years of age -- [is focused on Obama.]."
Hoyer insisted that voters will adopt that focus and that Democrats won't lose the House this fall. When asked about White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' comments this Sunday about a possible Republican takeover of the House he said: "Do I think he's right and there are enough seats in play? Probably close. I don't think the fact that they're in play does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that I think we're going to lose the House."
Those remarks echo House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments Monday that there's not "much likelihood" that Democrats will lose the House.
Hoyer left little doubt about what the Democratic campaign message will be.
"All of the predictions that were made for Bush's and the Republican's economic policies were wrong -- all of them. They resulted in deep debt. They ran a deficit every year they were in place. Unemployment was staggering," Hoyer said. "I think the American public hopefully is going to reflect on that. We're certainly going to be talking about that. I'm going to be talking about that."