Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland on Friday predicted point-blank that Democrats would hold on to the House of Representatives in November, saying that voters would ultimately recoil from restoring Republicans to power in Washington.

Of course, as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, it is Mr. Van Hollen’s job to say that Democrats will hold the House. But at the National Press Club, Mr. Van Hollen made his case emphatically as he offered what amounted to the Democratic response to the economic speech made this week by Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.

“Congressional Republicans inside the beltway are already popping the champagne bottles, saying that they’re going to seize control of United States Congress,” Mr. Van Hollen said, calling the celebration premature. “It’s very clear that the Democrats will retain a majority in the House come November.”

His main point was that voters, while disappointed with the pace of the economic recovery, still remember that it was the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans who were in charge when the recession took root. And he said the economic proposals rolled out so far by Mr. Boehner and others represent a return to the same policies that put the economy into a tailspin.

“The American people know that the day President Bush left office, the economy was in total free fall and we were losing jobs at the rate of 700,000 a month,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “They know that the reckless fiscal policies of the previous administration, including the unpaid-for war in Iraq, turned the record budget surpluses from the Clinton administration into a record $1.3-trillion deficit the day President Obama was sworn into office.”

Mr. Van Hollen also said that Republican primaries this year were producing candidates that are too far to the right for many districts and that Democrats were well prepared for what they know will be a difficult election.

Even before Mr. Van Hollen spoke, Republicans dismissed his remarks.

“Chris Van Hollen can try to spin it all he wants, but the fact remains that now even senior strategists within his own party are openly admitting that Nancy Pelosi’s grip on the speaker’s gavel is loosening by the day,” Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said. “Democrats are right that knocking on doors is an important aspect of grass-roots campaigning, but a fatally flawed message and an unpopular agenda won’t keep the ghost of Democrat majorities lost from knocking on theirs.”