Pelosi Transcript of Reporter Q&A Following Bipartisan Congressional Leaders Meeting at the White House

Q:  [Inaudible] President Trump?

Leader Pelosi.  I mean, it was an interesting meeting.  It was really more of a get-together kind of a thing.  But, we did exchange some ideas about how we could work together.

Q:  On any particular policies?

Leader Pelosi.  Well, we talked about the Affordable Care Act, and said, what the Affordable Care Act has been successful in doing is improving quality, expanding access and lowering costs.  And any proposal that they might have that does that – we'd be interested in hearing about.

We talked about infrastructure – it has to be real infrastructure, not a tax break, not [for] somebody to be subsidized by the federal government to build something and then charge tolls to the taxpayers already subsidizing that purchase.

We talked about some things that related to trade with China, currency manipulation and the rest, piracy of our intellectual property, in which we were on the same page.  And we just talked about the fact that under President Bush, we worked very closely with him on many issues, including an energy bill, for example, even though we were opposed and won the majority running against his plan to privatize Social Security, as well as the Iraq War.

Q:  Did he push back on your policy suggestions on the ACA and infrastructure?

Leader Pelosi.  No.  I mean, that is to say – we're saying: lower costs, improve quality and increase access.  If you have something that does that, then we'll go there.  I'm not going to go into all of the exchange in the place, but those were some of the subjects that we touched upon – and really you have to [inaudible] with the Republicans, we have always stipulated to a number.  You know, that is to say: if we're going to have a conversation, we have to stipulate to a set of facts, and then, we can proceed.   And that was, really, part of the demands that the Republicans would make too.  And it was right.

So hopefully, when we're talking about these things, we are having a set of facts that we are working from.

Q:  Did anything about him surprise you?  Did he make any surprising statements?

Leader Pelosi. Well, I won't even go into that.

But I am thrilled about what happened yesterday – Saturday – in Washington, D.C. and throughout the world.  At our march in San Francisco we were saying, you know, volunteer and vote.  But after seeing the response all over the world, and especially in our own country where this applies, I would say, volunteer, vote, you've marched, now run!  We want to see many more women run for office and I think with the momentum we saw on Saturday which was just so inspiring that many more women will run.  And nothing has a more wholesome effect on our government and our elections than the increased participation of women.

Q:  How discouraged are you that 72 hours in all these executive actions against women's reproductive health, vowing to repeal the ACA, he's asking you to the White House to talk about these things…

Leader Pelosi.  It's no surprise, it's no surprise.  We didn't really talk about the gag rule because well you know, what do you expect?  We did talk about infrastructure and more overarching issues than specific issues regarding [inaudible] Reagan did that and Obama reversed that and then now it's been reversed by this President.  It is a policy other Republicans have disrespected, allowing a woman the will to make her own decisions about the size and timing of her family.