Transcript of Pelosi and Hoyer Press Availability Today

Speaker Pelosi.  Good morning.  We are in the midst of a very exciting House Democratic Caucus where we are getting down the track.  I am a Marylander, so I always have these racing analogies.  I think we are coming around the bend - not in the home stretch yet - but we are coming around the bend.

We have to make our decision about what form the public option will be in the bill - there will be a public option in the bill.  The principle that Members have to decide this on are: middle-class affordability, security for our seniors, and responsibility to our children.  As we do this, it has to add up to zero so that it is deficit neutral and there is no additional debt heaped onto our children.  It must come within what the President has called for: $900 billion in coverage; it must be paid for; it must reduce cost over time.

And so we are very near to some of our final decisions needed for us to send something to the CBO that will inform how we go forward.  I am very excited about the fact that Members want reform, that they have all been constructive in the conversation about it, and that they are all reaching for consensus on it.  With that, I am please to yield to the distinguished Mr. Hoyer.

Leader Hoyer.  Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.  There is some very good news in polling data today where seniors and the more they learn about the proposal, the more support we are garnering for this proposal.  The Speaker has indicated that our Caucus is united.

Speaker Pelosi.  We have the Helen Keller event now, so excuse me.

Leader Hoyer.  We are both going.  We are both speaking.  We will go to that.  Our Caucus is united as I have said many times on the fact that we need to pass health care reform to give access to affordable, quality health care for all of our citizens.  We think that is critical.  It is critical because we need to provide care, we need to have a healthy nation, and having such we will save money.

It is also critical, and the President has made it very clear, that we are not going add any dime as he said, to the deficit.  And that will bend the long-term cost of health care for individuals, for families, for businesses, and for the government.  We believe that to be critical.

As the Speaker has said, while we may be rounding the bend, we are not in the home stretch yet.  We still have work to do.  But we are committed to doing that work, and we expect in the coming weeks to put a bill on the floor that will garner a majority of support of the Congress, of the House of Representatives, and pass that bill.  And hopefully the Senate will do the same, and we will go to conference in the effort this year to assure Americans that they will have health care that they can count on.  I regret that I can't stay and answer questions.  But we do have the Helen Keller event in about 30 seconds.