Transcript of House, Senate Democrats Press Conference Calling on Republicans to Stop Governing By Crisis, Take Action to Protect & Create American Jobs

Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – House and Senate Democrats held a bicameral press conference today to call on Republicans to stop governing by crisis and instead take action to protect and create American Jobs. As Republicans' reckless inaction on the Export-Import Bank and the Highway and Transit Trust Fund continues to threaten hundreds of thousands of American jobs and economic growth, the House and Senate Democratic Leaders urged irresponsible Republican Leaders to end their dysfunction and join Democrats to put American jobs first. Below is a transcript of Leader Pelosi's opening and closing remarks, as well as a question and answer session.

Leader Pelosi's Opening Remarks.

"Thank you very much, Leader Reid. I accept your compliment on behalf of the House Democrats and, I know, the Senate Democrats as well, whose courage made the Affordable Care Act possible. When we planned meeting today about jobs, little did we know that it would only be a short time after the Supreme Court announced its decision on the Affordable Care Act. For the second time, the Affordable Care Act has been upheld by the Supreme Court, with the Chief Justice writing the decision – saying that the Affordable [Care Act] was passed to strengthen health insurance markets, not to destroy them. He went on to say many other reinforcing, encouraging statements about its worth. There wasn't even a dissenting opinion, as I understand – or so far we haven't seen it.

"So it's a great day for the American people, especially coming in the week as we prepare for the Fourth of July. Because on that day, we commemorate what our Founders said: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – a healthier life; the liberty to pursue your happiness without being job locked or policy chained; start a business, change jobs, be self-employed, follow your aspirations. That's good for an individual; it's good for a country. What's good for our country is for us to have a strong economy, and to have it be driven by middle class economics.

"So, I associate myself with the remarks of Leader Reid when he talks about the highway bill. It's long overdue, with all of these extensions. It's impossible to plan, and to do the right thing by the infrastructure and transportation of our country. I hope that the Republicans, when we come back after the break, will be ready to review the President's proposal. The Senate, in a bipartisan way, passed a highway bill this week. Everybody is ready for this except, apparently, the Republican Leadership. The American people are certainly ready for this; in fact, their hopes are riding on our getting moving on a transportation bill.

"As the Leader mentioned, there are many jobs that depend on the Ex-Im Bank – 1.5 million since 2007. And again, we have a deadline, June 30th deadline, and no action; [July] 31st deadline for the highway bill. Show us the bill. It's important to note that, when the President took office, we were in a terrible situation, brought to us by Trickle-Down economics. And with the President's approach of Middle-Class economics we were able to, what, create millions of jobs over sixty straight months of private sector job creation – some if it from the auto industry, where it was on its heels at the time, and reinvigorated by actions of Congress and the President of the United States; the market under seven [thousand], it's now flirting with 18,000; unemployment was 10 percent – it's now more like five-and-a-half; the deficit was $1.4 trillion – it's now under $500 billion, a 70 percent decrease. The list goes on. And of course, apropos of this morning's decision, 17 million Americans having quality affordable health care.

"So, much has been done, but we still haven't had the full recovery – because we really need to have [the] bigger job investment that when the Republicans took the majority they stood in the way of. So, we're calling on the leadership to pass a highway bill, to pass the Ex-Im Bank, to bring us to the table to debate a budget that enables us to do right by the American people, again, to return to a Middle-Class Economics versus the Trickle Down. I'm very excited about today. We're very encouraged by it all, but we know more must be done for working class families in America. We know the solutions: highway bill, Ex-Im, a budget – appropriations bills that promote growth, reduce the deficit and create jobs. With that, I'm pleased to yield to the senior Member of the Appropriations Committee in the United States Senate, Deputy Leader Richard Durbin."

Leader Pelosi's Closing Remarks.

"If I may, Mr. Leader, I want to just return to the health care decision this morning once again, again thanking you for your great leadership and courage and masterful work as a virtuoso legislator, to get that job done. But you remember the night the bill passed, the President called us and he said: ‘I'm happier tonight than I was the night I was elected President of the United States.' And we said: ‘Mr. President, we're pretty happy tonight, for what it means to the American people. But if you were not elected President of the United States, we would not have been able to have this victory tonight.'

"So as we recognize the work that it took in the House and in the Senate to get the job done, let us also recognize the leadership of the President of the United States. And I know, having heard his remarks this morning, how happy he is about that. But again, if you're ever in the trenches in a fight, you want Harry Reid down there in that trench as well."

***

Q: Senator Reid, now that the Court has settled the Obamacare decision for the time being, what do you think that Republicans should do about reconciliation package? What do you actually think could become law that they should use reconciliation on?

Leader Reid. They can do whatever they want to do. I think that they should get real and forget about Obamacare. As far as reconciliation goes, they only have one shot at that. And if they do something that's a little off target, it will be vetoed and that's their last shot at doing it. So I should think that they should do something that will have some lasting impact, not something they know the President will veto.

Q: What's another option then? Tax reform or…?

Leader Reid. Hey listen – they can do – I'm not them, and they haven't been listening to me for six months.

Whip Hoyer. Can I just make an aside? It's been made complicated for them, because the CBO said if you repeal the Affordable Care Act, it creates a huge hole in the deficit, which our Republican friends say they don't want to do.

Leader Reid. They only do deficits for tax cuts.

Whip Hoyer. So in order to use reconciliation, you cannot increase the deficit. So, they've got a real problem.

Q: On the Export-Import Bank, there are a lot of different bills out there, and I assume it's most likely to get attached in the Senate. So are Democrats generally behind the Kirk-Heitkamp bill even though it may not have some of the provisions that are in Mr. Hoyer's bill, particularly on coal?

Leader Reid. Right now, the playing field looks pretty dismal for Republicans doing anything on Ex-Im Bank, it doesn't matter where it is, because why? Because the Koch brothers are running ads all over the country, and they've notified Republican Senators and House Members: "Don't do this, we don't like it."

Remember, when they are about to spend a billion dollars denigrating society generally, in an effort to make them have more money, Republicans are scared to death of them. So, I wish that I could have great confidence that we are going to renew the Ex-Im Bank, but the Koch brothers may win another one.

Q: How long do you think it will take Republicans to realize that it is a mistake not to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank after it closes? Are they immune to public opinion?

Leader Reid. It appears with their efforts, as Representative Crowley has said, they don't have an agenda, everything is "no." Either no, or nothing, or not anymore. And they are people who believe that government is bad, anything they can do to denigrate government, that's what they will do, and they've done it.

So America, the business community, I don't know why, but the business community doesn't speak out loudly on Ex-Im Bank. If there were ever a Republican, you'd think, oriented program – the problem is, it's now our program, because we – Reagan, Bush, Bush, Clinton, this is a program that has been good for America through all administrations. So, I can't believe the business community doesn't rise up, but they haven't yet.

Whip Hoyer. Leader Reid, if I could just add something?

On April 30th, Speaker Boehner, himself, and I'm quoting Speaker Boehner, the Leader of the House that could put any bill on the floor that he wants to…Quote: "There are thousands of jobs on the line that would disappear pretty quickly if the Ex-Im Bank were to disappear."

They know the consequences, they have the responsibility to act.

Q: Senator Reid? I wanted to ask you and Senator Durbin, you both opposed Justice Roberts' confirmation. I'm wondering if you now feel you voted the wrong way on that?

[Laughter]

Leader Reid. Now, that was sure a dirty trick – that question.

Well, on two different occasions, dealing with healthcare, he's done some really good work. The Supreme Court is an institution this country has, I support it, I'm not happy with some of the people that I voted for. But that's okay, they're there and I'm not.

Leader Pelosi. If I just may, on that score, say I think it's really important to praise one decision or another. But one decision, Citizens United, is so undermining of our democracy, I will never understand how this Court could have said, made the decision that they made, characterize it the way it did, without having any idea of what is happening in the country. Because they suffocate the airwaves with special interest, invisible money, sucking up all the air from the debate, turning people off from politics in general.

That to me is one of the very, very bad decisions this Court has made. So, one decision or another is not the judgement of the Court. Yes, we're happy today, hopefully we're happy tomorrow when they talk about marriage equality.

But I just want to get one thing out, because we may close. On the Affordable Care Act, and Harry knows this because it's really a very important part of his agenda, this was a very important jobs bill for America. It was projected to create 4 million jobs in the first years of its enactment, and it is doing just that. And if you look at the markets, you see health insurance industries, health care providers, all doing very well.

So, I want to recognize it, not just for what it is, affordable, accessible healthcare – which would be justification enough – but also, the fact that it is a job creator and an injection of growth into our economy. It's, as they say, a lot of reason to be very happy.

Leader Reid. We're going to take one more question, and the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, should have been called, "Koch brothers vs. America."

Q: Next week is the official deadline for the Iran nuclear negotiations, there's been some concerns voiced on both sides of the aisle. Are you concerned that Congress couldn't pass a motions to approve appeal, and what message does that send?

Leader Reid. Well, of course, the President has the authority to extend more time if he needs it. And in fact, Senator Corker, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that if they needed more time, he wouldn't complain.

I hope we get an agreement, I hope it's robust, I hope it's a very strong agreement that's helpful to the world. So we'll just wait and see what comes up.

Thanks everybody.

Leader Pelosi. Hey, you all? Let us celebrate the Affordable Care Act! Happy day!

[Applause]

# # #