This morning, I jumped on a bloggers conference call with Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11). McCotter is the chair of the Republican Policy Committee, and a few months ago he spoke to the weekly bloggers briefing hosted by Rob Bluey at Heritage.

I was a few minutes late, so I missed the Congressman’s introductory remarks. But they’ll be hosting more of these calls to reach out to bloggers in the future, and you can contact Bettina Inclan at - bettina (dot) inclan (at) mail (dot) house (dot) gov to get the details.

Standard disclaimer - I’m a blogger, not a reporter, so some of these remarks are paraphrased.

2008 Initiatives
McCotter was asked what policy initiatives were on tap for 2008?

We have to bury the past. Our policies became about numbers, not about helping people. We have to bring back the centrality of people to policy making.

On the Democrats

Big government doesn’t stop chaos, it is chaos.
They [Democrats] are intent on taking more peoples’ money.

On Michigan

McCotter stated that Michigan, his home state (and mine) is tracking just like the National Democrats.
The Democrat Governor Granholm has been pushing through tax hikes to “protect government”. And this will backfire against the Democrats politically.

Roll of Political Blogs

They offer the ability to get your message out.

Representative Kingston, among others have paved the way for Republicans in the House to reach out the bloggers.
It’ll be the younger members who really embrace the medium though.

McCotter also said that at the Republican Policy Committee, “We’ve learned from our failure to communicate from every medium we can find.”

Communist China

We need fair trade with free nations.

We should not be trading with Communist China. Trade with that country is imperiling trade with Latin America and other countries. According to recent polls, a majority of Republicans think free trade is bad for the U.S. not because of trade with other countries. It’s because of trade with Communist China.

On a similar note, here’s McCotter speaking on the house floor about China’s decision to ban Bibles at the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing.

Special thanks to Congressman McCotter and his staff for continuing to reach out to bloggers and working to make an impact in the modern world.