Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference Today
Washington D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference today in the Capitol Visitor Center. Below is a transcript of the press conference.
Leader Pelosi: Good morning. Here we are on day 198 of the Republican takeover of the majority of the House of Representatives and here we are with zero job creating bills presented by the Republicans. On Saturday it will be the 200th day. And here is what they have to show for it in terms of jobs. H.R. 1 H.R. 1, we call that the ‘So Be It’ spending bill, would lose, according to Mark Zandi, 700,000 jobs. H.R. 2, that deals with the repeal of the Patient’s Bill of Rights, would immediately lose a minimum of 300,000 jobs. And the Republican budget that they put forth again, 900,000 jobs, according to Mark Zandi, the economist for Moody’s, next year and 1.7 million jobs beyond that.
We have seen this bill that came to the floor, “Cut, Cap and End Medicare” we call it, and that will lose jobs. It is a job loser as well. It is really a reinstatement of one of the other bills. Not only that, in the Transportation Infrastructure Committee they [are considering] a bill that would lose about 600,000 jobs. This is how the Chamber of Commerce described it: ‘…investment levels are unacceptable.’ The bill ‘will destroy rather than support existing jobs and will not enable creation of additional jobs.’
Again, Republicans have voted 10 times against Democratic initiatives and the Make it in America agenda to create jobs. We are approaching 200 days. We are approaching 2 million jobs that Republicans have voted to destroy. That’s Saturday.
Today, we have the one-year anniversary of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform Act. It well, I want to talk to you about it. It has the strongest financial reforms in decades. And the greatest unsurpassed consumer protections in the history of our country. Today, Republican legislation on the floor, on the one-year anniversary strives to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Agency making it impossible, impossible to protect consumers.
We, of course, are in the middle of the debt talks now, still, ongoing. And always like to see them from the vantage point of America’s kitchen tables. We know how the boardroom thinks, the corporate boardroom. They know that this is bad for our economy, bad for our bond rating, bad for job creation and growth. How it is seen individually at those kitchen tables are an increase in interest on credit cards, Social Security and veterans checks could be held up. Stock prices could fall, affecting the 401(k) pensions and savings of many families. It is a job destroyer.
We must reach a bipartisan balanced solution to this. It has to happen soon. It is essential. We must reduce the deficit. We must make cuts. And we have to do it in a way that does not harm our economic growth. Because I come back to where I began. It’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.
So this bill not only should do no harm, this solution should do no harm; it also should strive to promote growth as we make cuts, strive for revenue, create growth.
With that, I would be pleased to answer any questions.
Q: Leader Pelosi, do House Democrats have an obligation to provide the President with votes to raise the debt ceiling if he is able to work out a agreement with the Republicans?
Leader Pelosi: Well, we all have an obligation to prevent our country from going into default. It is important to note that this raising of the ceiling is not about making room for future spending; it is about paying the past debt that was largely amassed in the Bush Administration. Wherever it was amassed we have a responsibility, as we did when President Bush was President, to not default on our loans.
What the bill looks like will depend on who can vote for it. Because in the past we have not said that we will hold you up. We need to lift the debt ceiling, but only if you do this and this and this. If these bills are combined, Members will vote when they see the bills.
Q: On a different topic, you have been a supporter of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act
Leader Pelosi: If I may, I just want to stay with the debt stuff and then we will come to anything else. On the debt?
Q: On the debt ceiling, yesterday you indicated that you were open to it in principle, the Gang of Six proposal. What principles
Leader Pelosi: No, I didn’t say it that way, although I may be. I said it contains some good principles.
Q: What principles do you
Leader Pelosi: Well, it’s about deficit reduction. It is about making sure that we do not hurt the most vulnerable in our society. But to tell you the honest truth, I haven’t been presented with what it is. I’ve seen press reports of it and we’ve gotten some copies of outlines of it. But I respect the people who put it together. It’s about again making the cuts to reduce the deficit in a way again, I’m talking on insufficient information in a way that is bipartisan and they believe balanced. And we’ll see what it is.
But we have many we have Simpson Bowles, we have the Domenici Rivlin, we have the Center for American Progress. We have the Center for Budget [and] Policy [Priorities]. We have across the spectrum many good resources. Mr. Peterson’s institute. Many good suggestions that we can draw upon to have a balanced bipartisan solution to this. This would be one of them.
Q: Leader Pelosi, can you tell us about the substance of your conversation with the President yesterday?
Leader Pelosi: No. [Laughter]
Q: Can you tell us where you think the White House talks stand right now?
Leader Pelosi: You would have to talk to the White House about where the White House talks stand because they have talked after our talks. Senator Reid and Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Durbin and I visited with the President. We had I think a very constructive meeting. Then they met with the Republicans. So we’ll see. We will have some follow up meetings today on the congressional side and see where we are going there. But I would not be talking about any meeting in the White House.
Q: There have been a number of governors and mayors who are beginning a number of layoffs as far as workers are concerned. Has that been calculated into the job losses?
Leader Pelosi: No, it’s even worse than this. I’m talking about directly related to their legislation. In fact this does not even include the appropriations bills that are on the floor now. We saw one last Friday where it cut investments in science and technology for new green energy jobs for the future. I’m not even going into that.
Q: Are these government workers?
Leader Pelosi: No, these are jobs that relate to what is here. It is interesting to note because we had the Chairman, the President, Chairman, whatever it is, the Democratic Governors’ Association meet with us this morning in Mr. Hoyer’s meeting. Governor O’Malley and he talked about what we know, what the jobs figures show, that there is a tremendous loss in the private sector. And this is really where we have to be careful with this debt reduction. Not only should it not deter growth, but it should be very cautious as to cost shifting to the states. If they want to shift this cost or that cost to the states, that will necessitate laying off more police, fire, teachers, public employees. This is not good for them as individuals. It is not good for the safety of our communities and the education of our children. But these are consumers also. So it’s not good for the economy.
So some of the stuff – these have not been enacted into law. Those are jobs that have been lost because of the fear of what might come – well, for a lot of reasons because the States are strapped, the economy is bad for a lot of reasons.
But what we want to do is restore confidence and we want to restore confidence in a way that does create jobs, does create consumers. Because when businesses have consumers, I think then is when they would hire people and create jobs.
Q: Leader Pelosi?
Leader Pelosi: I want to go back to this gentlemen because I think they may be having a party in here next and I have to leave in a couple of minutes. I don’t know, something is happening.
Q: As I said, you have been a supporter of the Employer Nondiscrimination Act and that legislation is unlikely to pass as long as Republicans are in control of the House. As an interim alternative would you support an executive order from the President prohibiting the Federal Government from dealing with companies that do not have their own nondiscrimination section based on sexual orientation and sexual identity?
Leader Pelosi: Yes, and yes. I think it is all long overdue. And I have long in my time in Congress supported ending discrimination in the workplace for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.
Q: Leader Pelosi, if you won’t talk to us about the White House meeting will you talk to us about your meeting with Mr. Speaker as well as Mr. Cantor and Mr. Hoyer? And did you come out of that thinking you all are closer together?
Leader Pelosi: Let me say I’m not likely to talk about any meetings that I have. I can frequently tell you what I have said in a meeting but I would never be likely to tell you what somebody else said in a meeting, whether it is at the White House or in the Speaker’s Office. And I can characterize it as being constructive in that we were we knew what we had to do for the next meeting. And that will maybe happen today. And our staffs are preparing for that possible meeting. So we are moving in a forward direction. So I would say that the meeting was positive in that regard.
Q: Do you think the 12 days left
Leader Pelosi: I’m sorry?
Q: Do you mean the next meeting at the White House or just among the leadership here?
Leader Pelosi: Here. I don’t know about that could happen at any time?
Q: I was saying with 12 days left or about 12 days, are you confident that there is enough time to get through both the House and the Senate legislative processes and just to be able to avoid this catastrophe that is coming up on the 2nd?
Leader Pelosi: I can only say that I certainly hope so because it is really important for as soon as possible for us to remove all doubt that we will not renege on our commitments and that we have to end we have to prevent a default. So we have to work hard and long to take us there. Because I think we have some of the pieces. It’s not going to be mysterious as to what ends up in a final product. It’s just a question of how big it is, what the parts of it are. It is a question of how big it is and that will determine what ends up in it.
But in any event to remove all doubt, the U.S. government cannot default on his obligations. How we proceed must show a sign of serious deficit reduction. How we do that cannot deter economic growth. And so it’s about job creation, it’s about reducing spending. I’d like to see it have a revenue piece so we have tax fairness, whether immediately or something that’s part of an extended plan to it. But again it all comes back to one thing. Whatever we do has to create jobs.
Thank you all very much. Good morning.