Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.), chairman of the House GOP Conference, made a bit of a splash during President Obama’s exchange with Republicans when he compared the president’s tax-credit proposal to Jimmy Carter’s. “It was in the context of asking the president whether he’d embrace Reagan or JFK-style across-the-board tax cuts,” says Pence to National Review Online. “President Carter was the last person to advance what President Obama’s doing, and it was an abject failure.”

Pence calls today’s Q&A session with the president in Baltimore a “useful” tool for the House GOP in spreading its message. “It’s not widely known, but Republicans have actually been offering positive solutions on the economy, fiscal discipline, energy independence, and health-care reform,” he says. “It’s not widely known because this administration has done a real number on us, smearing the GOP as the ‘party of no.’ Today we were able to push back on that, and even the president acknowledged that Republicans have been offering substantive alternatives on every major issue.”

Republicans, he adds, “gave as good as they got” in the question period. “We confronted the president with some very direct questions and statements — focused on policy, not politics. He responded, occasionally, with similar directness. It was productive.” So is Pence open to more House of Commons-like debates? “We welcome them,” he says.