Transcript of Pelosi, House Democratic Leaders Press Availability on Ryan Republican Budget's Impact on Seniors
Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Members of the House Democratic Caucus held a press availability on the impact of the Ryan Republican Budget on seniors. Leader Pelosi and House Democrats underscored how the Ryan budget ends the Medicare guarantee, dramatically slashes Medicaid, and forces seniors to pay more for prescription drugs and preventive health services by repealing the Affordable Care Act. Below are the Leader's opening and closing remarks, as well as a question and answer session:
Leader Pelosi's Opening Remarks
"Good afternoon, everyone. On Friday, as you know, some of us came together to talk about the Ryan Republican Budget and the damage that it did to the prospects for our children and their education. We talked about the fact that it would cut Head Start. It's a debatable issue, but around 170,000 kids would be cut from Head Start. Children learning, parents earning – see what that does to families. Over three million children in disadvantaged areas, Title I schools – 3.5 million kids would see cuts in what came to their advantage. And then of course we talked about Pell Grants – big cuts in Pell Grants – and what it meant in terms of student loans as well. So from the earliest childhood education to higher education, it was very damaging to our children and their future.
"Today we're here to talk about what the budget does to seniors: millionaires over Medicare, shipping jobs overseas, giving tax cuts to ship jobs overseas, rather than – and making seniors pay more for prescription drugs. It's appalling. And I'm pleased to be joined by two of my colleagues who are part of our Seniors Taskforce on Medicare and Social Security, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Congresswoman Doris Matsui of California. You'll hear some specifics about the budget and seniors from them, and then a wrap up for what it further does to seniors from our distinguished Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, Mr. Van Hollen.
"But once again, families get hit right at home – Friday, the damage to children and their education; today, to their grandparents. Now I'm pleased to yield to Congresswoman Schakowsky."
Leader Pelosi's Closing Remarks
"Thank you, my colleagues, not only for your presentations today but for your leadership on these issues. And I think it's important to note – as I listened to them, of course, as Congresswoman Matsui says and as Mr. Van Hollen always says, the budget should be a statement of our values, about what is important to us.
"We all like to present ourselves as family-friendly and all of this. And as they were speaking, I was thinking that, in the course of the budget talks, I've had conversations with large groups of high school students, college students and the rest. Because their names are always taken – and sometimes in vein – to say: ‘Well, we cannot heap mountains of debt onto future generations.' And that is exactly what the Ryan budget will continue to do if we do not invest in the future. As I said the other day, nothing brings more money to the Treasury than the investment in the education of the American people, from earliest childhood through lifetime learning.
"And these young people, when they would come to our meetings and the rest, as they come to our meetings, they would say: ‘These are the things we'd like to see in a budget. We want to see strong public education. We want to have libraries that we can go to,' things like that. But they brought up and said: ‘It's really important for our families to know that our grandparents are taken care of under Medicare.' So the young people are advocates for Medicare, because they know what it means to the economic security of families.
"And on the subject of Medicaid, many, many young women are out there campaigning to have states expand their Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Because they know what it means to their families. So this saving of Medicare and Medicaid is an intergenerational initiative. Because families know that, for families to be intact, we not only have to educate our children. We don't want our seniors – imagine being a grandparent and saying to your children: ‘You're going to have fewer opportunities. Because I have greater needs because of somebody's ideological view in Washington that we should voucherize Medicare and make seniors pay more – while we give tax breaks to millionaires.'"
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Q: Leader Pelosi, is the Ryan budget so bad that it will help you regain the House in the fall?
Leader Pelosi. We're not thinking politically on this. We just want to have a debate on the issues, because this is about who we are as a country. If we're going to be strong as a country, we have to mitigate for any challenges to the well-being of America's families. And again, we want to be number one. And you can't be number one without education and the rest. But you also, again, have to lessen the risk that families would take to be entrepreneurial. But I'm going to yield to our distinguished Ranking Member on that subject. Again, we don't see it as political.
Congressman Van Hollen. I think that this is the debate the country should have. This is about who we are as a country – what choices we'll make as Americans. And we're looking forward to a healthy debate.
We think that if you look at the Republican budget, it's totally out of touch with the priorities and values of the country. It may appeal to a very narrow constituency within the country, but it's out of touch with most of the country. I don't think most of the country would make the choices they make. I don't think most of the country would choose to protect special interest tax breaks at the expense of our kid's education and our commitments to seniors.
So look: we welcome the debate. I do think it's important that people in the country know what Republicans in Congress would do if they had the power to implement their will. Right? I mean, this is a clear roadmap of what Republicans in Congress would do if they had the power to do it. And, therefore, everybody should take this process seriously.
Q: Quick question for probably Mr. Van Hollen: you mentioned the GOP plan being a roadmap. That sounds – a cynic might think that these plans are basically just setting the framework for 2016 and the appropriations process after that. Where does your budget differ from the President's budget in those out years, 2016 and on?
Congressman Van Hollen. I'm going to talk about our budget tomorrow. I'm happy to sit down and go over the details. Right now, we're focused on how the Republican budget impacts seniors. I can tell you, with respect to seniors, we do not end the Medicare guarantee. We do not turn Medicare into a voucher, as the Republican plan does. We preserve the closure of the donut hole. In other words, we make sure that seniors don't fall into the donut hole. The Republican budget, of course, reopens the donut hole. And seniors will see a $1,200-a-year average increase in prices. We don't reinstate co-pays for preventive care services, and we don't decimate Medicaid – which will leave so many seniors vulnerable to cuts.
So I can tell you, with respect to all the issues we're dealing with on seniors, as my colleagues have said: our budget will support those commitments while the Republican budget undermines those commitments – at the same time that they provide all these special privileges to the special interests and most wealthy.
Q: How will your budget reduce the exploding costs of Medicare?
Congressman Van Hollen. Well, let me just say that we build on the approach of the Affordable Care Act, which has contributed to significant reductions in per capita health care costs. As you know, the Congressional Budget Office actually projects that we've saved $1 trillion since the Affordable Care Act was introduced. So, we build on that model. But I'll talk more about all of that.
Leader Pelosi. And there's very exciting news about how the costs are even going down further than we had anticipated – not anticipated – we had hoped for, but it's coming to fruition. Yes, sir?
Q: Tomorrow, the President is expected to sign executive orders related to federal equal pay for women – federal workers. Can I get your response to critics of bills like the Paycheck Fairness Act, who say that it cuts flexibility in the workplace for working moms and ends merit pay that rewards good work?
Leader Pelosi. Well, let's just put it this way: somebody is criticizing equal pay for equal work for women in the workplace? Do they have a mother? Do they have a daughter? Do they have a sister? Do they know any women? They want to justify a woman working side-by-side with a colleague who has equal qualifications, education, experience, etc. – and that that person should make more money than the woman?
And in fact, this week, we will be coming together again on the issue of women and the budget. But this week marks the time when women will have worked for free for the first three months of the year compared to her counterpart with the same qualifications. If women make around 77 percent of what – 77 cents on the dollar for what a man makes – same qualifications, same job – then January, February, March, a little bit of April a woman is working for free. I'll take that up with anybody, and what they want to say about this. It's not about flexibility. It's about total unfairness that has to become – and some might call it a double standard. Thank you.
Q: Can you talk about Medicare advantage cuts Democrats have criticized and the White House has criticized?
Leader Pelosi. You're not up to date? They made an announcement already today. You might want to go see that.