Pelosi: We Are Confident We Can Work Together in a Bipartisan Way to Pass an Economic Stimulus

'Good afternoon, we're all back.  The Democrats return for their second session of this Congress reinvigorated and ready to tackle the problems challenging our country.  We come back to this New Direction Congress focusing on the economy.

'It has been clear for the past few weeks that all sectors of the economy, where all shades of opinion of the economic world are saying to us that a stimulus is needed to avoid a downturn. We've tried to work in a very bipartisan way and I hope that that will bear fruit in another week or so.

'We've had meetings with Members of the leadership and chairs of the committee have met and spoken with by phone - the leadership of this Administration, Secretary Paulson, independent of the Administration meeting with, and speaking with Chairman Bernanke - tried to recognize the independence of the Fed to coordinate a monetary ease and some fiscal discipline on our part to put forth a stimulus package that will be timely, that will be temporary, and that will be targeted to middle and low income families so they can spend the money to inject into the economy, create jobs, and ease the pain in their lives.  This, of course, occurs at the same time as we have the subprime crisis and the downturn in housing as has contributed to lack of consumer confidence.

'Democrats are about confidence.  Our own confidence that we can work together in a bipartisan way to get the job done.  Our own confidence in our record of accomplishment in 2007 and what we know that we need to do by working in a bipartisan way to instill confidence in America's consumers and to restore confidence in our markets. So again the process is bipartisan, the policies are trying to find common ground and some initiatives that can quickly passed into law, signed by the President and to make a difference in the lives of American people.'