Transcript of Pelosi, Democratic Leaders Press Conference Today
Washington D.C. - Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn, Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Co-Chair Rosa DeLauro, and Congressman Steve Israel held a press conference today in the Capitol to discuss the need to focus on job creation and the Republican record on jobs. Below is a transcript of the press conference.
Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon. We just completed a very lively leadership meeting of the House Democrats where we talked about the Democrats, the necessity of Democrats to save the day yesterday, pulling our country back from the brink of default. It was a bitter pill for us to swallow, but we did. And as we did, we saved Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And you will be hearing more about that.
Yesterday we crossed a bridge. Enough talk about the debt. We have to talk about jobs. Every time I have met with you, we started our session with how many days it has been since the Republicans have been in office. Well, today it is 210 and we haven't seen any legislation yet that has created jobs.
In fact, we have seen legislation which has cost nearly 2 million jobs. More than 9,000 jobs a day would be lost if the Republicans' legislation were signed into law. We see in addition to that a holdup on the infrastructure bill and on FAA which we are hoping will be resolved today. You will be hearing more about that from my colleagues.
Jobs, jobs, job, jobs. You cannot say it enough. I really liked what Willie Nelson said, or at least he was quoted as saying, the American people are more concerned about a ceiling over their head than raising the debt ceiling. We know we need to do both. I was very pleased to hear the President pivot to jobs and to talk about infrastructure, to talk about how we create jobs to meet the needs of the American people. Some of his suggestions have very strong support in our caucus, whether it is infrastructure, rebuilding our country, whether it was "Make it in America." He said "Made in America," Steny. Mr. Hoyer will be talking to us about "Make It in America" and when he talked about the FAA bill, which we will talk more about now.
So, again, everybody has been intensely involved in this discussion on debt. The American people's top priority is the creation of jobs. We have crossed the bridge from that important discussion. Interesting that it was something that the Republicans did not have the votes to pass.
I am proud of my Members that they took the step to pull us from the brink of default even though they did not, were not happy about the legislation. But what was good about it was it is over and now it is time to talk about jobs, and the person who has been a leader and beating the drum for make it in America, he will tell you more about it, our distinguished whip, Mr. Hoyer.
Whip Hoyer. Thank you very much, Madam Leader. Let me suggest at the outset that talking about jobs is talking about the debt. The only way we are going to successfully deal with debt is to create jobs and economic growth in America. We know that, but 8 months on the job, no jobs bill for the American people. That is the negligent record of the Republican majority.
Democrats have focused on our "Make It in America" plan because America's innovation, invention and manufacturing creates middle class jobs and is essential to the growth of our whole economy. On our agenda, as you know, among a long list on our agenda is, A, a manufacturing strategy. Our competitors throughout the world all have manufacturing strategies. And we need our own effective game plan to out-produce, out-innovate, out-build and, yes, out-invest our competitors around the world. We must develop plans to increase manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.
On infrastructure bank--with me on the podium is our chairman of our Steering and Policy Committee, Rosa DeLauro, who has been a champion of an infrastructure bank which the President mentioned just a few minutes ago. We need to facilitate efficient private sector investments in infrastructure. We need to compete from broadband to energy systems to ports. We need to out build. With an infrastructure bank, we will be able to out-build. A partnership between the public sector and the private sector.
Clean energy, clearly that is the future. That is the vision we have of an America that powers itself by clean energy. We need to invest in clean energy, to create jobs and make America competitive in the most important new economic sector. China is doing that. Europe is doing that. America is and must do that. It is doing it as a result of the bill that we passed, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and we need to continue on that path.
Currency reform. Under Democratic leadership, we passed a bipartisan bill that sought to level the playing field by holding accountable countries that manipulate currency to gain unfair trade advantages. We know China is doing that and we know others are doing it. We need to pass legislation that will again send to the Senate a bill which will level the playing field or our manufacturers and our competitors.
I am pleased now to yield to my good friend from South Carolina, the Assistant Leader of the House of Representatives for the Democrats, Mr. Jim Clyburn.
Assistant Leader Clyburn. Thank you very much. Mr. Whip, Madam Leader, distinguished chairs, despite coming up about 44 votes short of 218 to prevent our nation from being devastated by default, Republicans in Washington continue to play political games. They have turned their 'my way or the highway' into 'my way or the runway.'
That is what has taken place with this FAA bill. The Federal Aviation Administration has been boggled up now--this is the tenth day. We have lost about $300 million in revenue. And I am pleased that the Senate seems to be willing to put a tourniquet on some of this hemorrhaging.
But the legislation that seems to be agreed to, which is the House version, leaves out a big chunk that is small, rural airports and the jobs, the contracting jobs that are being held in abeyance, that have already been decided upon. There is little that is any more important to job creation in rural communities than these small airports.
And for my Republican friends to continue to wreak havoc, havoc among the lives of those many men and women, those working men and women who are dependent upon these contracts in order to put food on the table and in order to put a ceiling over their heads and prepare for a future for their children, this is unconscionable and I would hope that we would hurry and get to the point of really setting aside political games and start doing what is necessary to resolve these issues that the American people would like to see us resolve.
Let me conclude by saying that Mr. Hoyer talked about energy. One of the quickest ways and one of the most elementary ways of putting people back to work in a hurry and having tremendous impact on energy savings is for us to do something to pass Home Star and what we are commonly calling our Rural Star, a rural energy savings program which will immediately create jobs. The bipartisan legislation I have been pushing now for more than a year is being held up by these political shenanigans and we ought to do something rather quickly to turn our attention to jobs so these rural communities can be looked after.
With that, I would like to yield now. I am assuming, I am yielding to the chair of our Steering and Policy Committee, our co-chair.
Congresswoman DeLauro. Co-chair with Mr. Miller. Yes. Thank you very, very much, Mr. Clyburn. I am pleased to join my colleagues today.
As they have said, we now have a debt ceiling fight behind us and we cannot afford to have any more distractions. We have to do everything that we can to create good, well paying jobs in America. And it is time for this Republican majority to break this 210 day streak and counting and start to put real jobs legislation on the schedule.
The President just a few moments ago spoke and he talked about whatever we are doing, that we need to have a piece that is about growing our economy. And unless we can grow our economy, we are not going to be able to put people back to work, we are not going to be able to deal with our deficit and we are not going to have economic security for the future. In order to create jobs, to fix our economy, we have to invest in our infrastructure and our domestic manufacturing capacity. They are the engines of economic growth for us for the future. We have to go back to being a country that builds things rather than one that just consumes goods that are produced overseas.
And with that in mind, I have long championed legislation to create a national infrastructure bank that can, in fact, leverage private capital toward public investment. According to a recent report, failing to invest in our Nation's infrastructure could cost the United States $129 billion a year and over the next 10 years. It reads, and I quote, U.S. businesses would pay an added $430 billion in transportation costs, household incomes would fall by more than $7,000, and U.S. exports will fall by $28 billion, end quote.
Meanwhile, we are falling behind in the global economy. China invests 9 percent of their gross domestic product in infrastructure, India 5 percent and rising. And here in America, we spend less than 2 percent of GDP on infrastructure. An infrastructure bank, it is a concept with broad and bipartisan support. It could help to close these gaps, restore our roads, bridges, water systems and the energy grid, do something about bringing telecommunications across this nation to rural community, allow us to build a 21st century infrastructure, and it could work to create jobs all across America, good jobs, well paying jobs that cannot be outsourced--so that we are, once again, making things in America, becoming more competitive in the global economy.
You know, this is a great nation and this is a nation that has been built on bricks and mortar and fiber optics, and we have got to get back to doing that again. Millions of families are struggling right now. We do not have the time or the luxury to play political games any longer. We need to pass jobs legislation right now, including an infrastructure bank, and I was pleased to see that the President spoke about an infrastructure bank today, a bank that will create jobs, spur investment and rebuild America.
And with that, let me introduce to you the chair of our Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Steve Israel of New York.
Congressman Israel. Thank you very much. The legislation to extend the debt ceiling may not have been a great deal, but it is now a done deal. And we are moving forward into August and we will spend August holding Republicans in the House accountable for 8 months of wrong choices for the American people in two areas, jobs and Medicare.
House Republicans made a decision that they were willing to close down the government, but they have not produced one single bill to open up a small business in this country, not one bill to open up a small business and create jobs in this country.
House Republicans made a decision. They made a decision with the Ryan budget. They actually made a decision 20 years ago when they said they would allow Medicare to wither on the vine and they have been fighting that battle relentlessly every single day for decades, culminating in they being in the majority of the House of Representatives, trying to pass a Ryan budget which would add $6,000 to the medical costs of senior citizens in order to fund corporate tax loopholes.
They made a decision going into this debate on the debt ceiling that they would rather close down the government in their relentless pursuit of the end of Medicare and the funding of corporate tax loopholes.
So we are calling this Accountability August. Accountability August. And the American people are going to ask their Republican Members of Congress to town meetings and wherever they go from one end of their district to another: "Why did you vote to end my Medicare when you could have stood with me? Why did you stand with the Big Oil companies when you could have protected my Medicare? Why did you protect corporate tax loopholes?" I don't know what the National Weather Service is predicting for temperatures in August, but for House Republicans I am predicting it is going to be very, very hot because they are going to spend their August defending the indefensible.
Thank you.
Leader Pelosi. Thank you very much, Chairman Israel. Chairman Israel is one of the few Democrats we can call Mr. Chairman. Madam Chair, you too. So we are honored that you are both here and thank you for your great work on behalf of the American people. I am very proud of the work that our House Democratic Caucus has been doing over time and relentlessly on behalf of job creation.
As you heard what was said here, there is a tremendous need for rebuilding the infrastructure of America. The Society of Civil Engineers says it is in the trillion of dollars just addressing rebuilding the infrastructure of America. It will create good paying jobs here at home. Thank you, Mr. President, for emphasizing that and the infrastructure bank because we are going to need some public private partnerships on how this is funded in a way that creates jobs, brings in revenue to reduce the deficit.
Mr. Hoyer, with his Make it in America, Mr. Clyburn's suggestions that he had, especially in terms of rural America, Congresswoman DeLauro with this infrastructure bank issue. I want to mention Mark Critz, who has the bill on China currency which has over 170 signatures to a discharge petition on that bill which as our leaders, our Whip said, has already passed the House in a bipartisan way [last Congress] and now we want it to come up again.
And what Mr. Israel said, this is not only about creating jobs, it is about developing small business in an entrepreneurial way and public and private partnerships in a way that takes people from survival in terms of do they have jobs to success, if they are job creators, to transformation of our country back to where people were before the last 10 years of recession and a financial crisis and deep deficits to the transformation of where they know they will be successful, they are willing to take risks and we can lead the way and continue to be number one. It is about innovation, as Steny says; we are going to out innovate, out educate, out build and America will continue to be number one. In the meantime, in the meantime we have to make sure that all Americans participate in the future economic prosperity of our country.
With that, I would be pleased to take any questions.
Q: I wanted to follow up on Congressman Clyburn's comments about the FAA. It seems that the Senate is probably not going to act before they finish up their business today on the House passed bill and legislators are about to now go on recess past Labor Day for a month while 4,000 FAA workers are being furloughed and 70,000 airport construction workers are being impacted as well. I am wondering if you think that is fair that all these Members are going home for a month vacation while these other people are suffering.
Assistant Leader Clyburn. We did not think it was fair. We did not think that Senator Reid agreed with that. And it seems as if just before we came in here that Senator Reid has agreed to the House passed legislation, and that is why I said in my statement it leaves out these small airports that have, or these contracting jobs that are available. That is my understanding.
Whip Hoyer. I want to say something on that because I think it is an example of what this Republican majority in the House of Representatives has done. A, they were clearly prepared to let America default for the first time in history on its debts unless they got their way.
Secondly, as you point out, they were prepared to leave Washington as they have now done essentially with almost 4,000 Federal employees out on the street and with over 70,000--we think the number is as large as 90,000 people who are helping to out build, who are helping to expand infrastructure, who are helping to make sure that our airports are safe and usable and more efficient. They were prepared to walk away from here and leave almost 95,000 people without a job. Why? Because they passed a bill and said to the United States Senate either you take it our way or it will be no runway and no highway and no way.
That is a perfect example of the politics not of persuasion, not of compromise, of coming together, but the politics of confrontation and my way or no way. Senator Reid is confronted with a terrible decision and my friends in organized labor are absolutely right on this issue. None of us, none of us and no Republican, not Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor or Mr. McCarthy would say to anybody I want to be in an election in which everybody who does not come to the polls is adjudged a no against me. That is not how we run American elections. But that is what Mr. Mica sent to the Senate. Now, Senator Reid, because he cares about those 90,000 jobs, as difficult as it may be, it is our understanding, is going to say we are not going to leave Washington with those folks out in the street as our Republican colleagues led by Mr. Mica and Mr. Boehner would do.
Q: Leader Pelosi, yesterday Congresswoman Giffords came to the floor and voted for the bill. It seemed to be an incredibly emotional moment for a lot of the Members. Can you tell me or tell us when you heard about this, what the moment was like for you, what the moment was like actually for all of you guys?
Leader Pelosi. Well, it was a great moment for our country because we had a person who is so highly respected. I think the most respected person in America, certainly an elected official in America whose name is just synonymous with inspiration, with respect, with courage, with patriotism.
And she really wanted to come. I am not going to go into the details of when we knew what and all the rest. I was not one who would have encouraged her to come because we didn't think it was going to hinge on one vote. But she felt so strongly about it that she wanted to come, and we are very, very proud that she did.
I am just looking at my watch because I don't know when she leaves town, but every moment that she is here, she enhances the climate of bipartisanship, nonpartisanship and of our country working together.
It was a great moment. When the green light went up on the screen on the wall next to her name, it was a highly emotional moment for us. There it was, yes, in green, Giffords. Just the last name, as you know.
So as I said to the pages who were there, you will witness a great deal of history; nothing, nothing like what is happening today when a person so respected, so courageous came back here because she wanted to save our economy because she knew going into default would be harmful.
Yes.
Q: Madam Leader, in this debt fight, one of your bright lines was protecting Medicare…
Leader Pelosi. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Q: When you make your appointments to this new committee, is that going to be something that you require them? Is that going to be something that you send them into the committee…
Leader Pelosi. Let me thank you for acknowledging that one of the fights that we were successful in--and what our Chairman Israel mentioned is that we did protect the benefits, the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. That is a priority for us, but let me say it is more than a priority. It is a value, it is an ethic for the American people. It is one that all of the members of our caucus share so that I know whoever is at that table will be someone who will fight to protect those benefits.
Q: Madam Leader, when do you expect to announce who the members of the special committee will be?
Leader Pelosi. When I do, you will be among the first to know.
Q: I also had a question about the--I wanted to ask you sort of along those lines of what kinds of people are you looking for to serve on this committee? What are your choices? This is another opportunity for you and for the caucus to speak on behalf of the things...
Leader Pelosi. For the past few months, the American people the people have wondered why are we talking about this debt rather than talking about jobs. We had the vote. We don't like the deal, it is a done deal. It is time for us to completely focus on jobs. So I have no intention for the next weeks and months to be talking about this committee. It has its responsibilities, we will make our appointments and the nature of who they are will be self evident. But we cannot turn ourselves into a place where we are just talking about the process of this. We have to be creating jobs.
Yes, ma'am, one last, yes.
Q: I was going to just follow with the super committee essentially to ask if you will you be picking people who are more apt to compromise as opposed to people who will take you down the same road of a stalemate?
Leader Pelosi. Let me say that our caucus is very united in hoping that this committee has some level of success in reducing the deficit with a strong element of growth and job creation as part of it. We are fooling ourselves if we ever think that one element on the table, whether it be cuts, is going to solve it. If we are serious, as our caucus is about reducing the deficit, we have to go in there recognizing that some cuts will have to be made, that you can't accomplish what you set out to do without considering revenues in a very strong way and some of those revenues had been mentioned by Mr. Israel.
Whether it is subsidies for Big Oil, whether it is tax benefits or corporations sending jobs overseas, we have a long list as you know. And you cannot reduce the deficit unless you bring revenue in. Mr. Hoyer said it. Jobs creation is deficit reduction.
And so again, we are pretty unified in our commitment to reducing the deficit by creating jobs and by having a fair and bipartisan approach to getting it done. But don't expect us to spend every day between now and then and until the committee makes its report talking about the process of that. What we are talking about is the promotion of jobs, small business creation and the entrepreneurial spirit in our country, which has been the source of our job creation and our success over the past few decades.
So with that, thank you all very much.