Pelosi Remarks Following Listening Session with Leading Economists

Washington, D.C - Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Democrats and several leading economists held a news conference today following the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee listening session for Members of Congress on the state of the economy.  Below are the Speaker's opening remarks:

"Good morning. We just had a very productive session with some leading economists, who for over a year now having been giving us advice, guidance, and an assessment of the state of our economy and some judgments about how we should go forward. We are very pleased to have been joined by Mark Zandi -- as you know Mark is with Moody's Economy.com, Alan Blinder of Princeton University, Rebecca Blank of Brookings Institution, and Allen Sinai of Decision Economics.

"This was a session that was put on by our Steering and Policy Committee chaired by Congressman George Miller and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and participated in by the chairmen of our committees and Members of the House Democratic Caucus.

"The word of the day is a word that is very important to our economy every day, and that word is ‘confidence' -- confidence in our markets, confidence in lending, confidence in our financial institutions. We had excellent presentations and piercing questions from our colleagues.

"It's clear that we have to stabilize our financial institutions. We have to invest in a stimulus plan to grow our economy. We have to regulate our financial institutions and we have to end the housing crisis. And the Obama Administration has already done just that.

"In record time, we have passed the President's economic recovery plan and we are now anticipating very positive outcomes from that. Last week, the President put in motion the housing proposal and we are positive in anticipation of what that will result in.

"Mr. Frank has talked to us about regulatory reform and the course that we are on in that. And the big issue of the day here is financial stabilization of our financial institutions of our markets.

"And I have to say that our Members left this meeting much better equipped to make important decisions for our country, for our economy -- much better informed about the choices that we have and much more confident about the course of action that President Obama has taken us on.

"I look forward to continuing these meetings, but right now, I want you to hear from our economists and again express my appreciation to them for being with us today.

"We will begin with Mark Zandi of Moody's, who has probably been at most of the meetings on an ongoing basis and we have benefitted from his thinking.  Thank you, Mark Zandi."