Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on Democratic Initiatives to Create Jobs
Contact: Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616
Washington D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was joined by Democratic Leaders this afternoon in the Capitol at a press conference to discuss Democratic initiatives to create jobs. Below are the Leader’s remarks and a transcript of the question and answer session:
Leader Pelosi. You’re back! Welcome. Well, a day early, but none too soon to get back to work for this Congress. And once again, Democrats are calling upon this Congress to get to work to put the American people back to work.
In the month of August, we had a very extended opportunity to listen to our constituents. Obviously, their top priority is job creation and economic growth, protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and to, again, strengthen the middle class.
I will be very brief because we have a number of Members to hear from. We’ve had a long meeting of our House Democratic leadership on how we go forward. We come to you with some excitement about the optimism we have for our three very distinguished Members who represent us at the table of 12: Congressman Jim Clyburn—excuse me, Assistant Leader Clyburn—Vice Chairman Becerra and the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, part of our delegation to the table, Congressman Chris Van Hollen. So we wish them well. We send them to the table with highest expectations, with the best good will and without drawing any lines in the sand.
We are looking forward to the President’s speech [Thursday] night, but we continue our own initiatives on job creation. We think it’s about getting back to basics, about the ABCs.
As you see, as Mr. Hoyer has, our Leader Hoyer, Majority—I’ll get it right yet, Steny.
Whip Hoyer. Madam Speaker, Majority Leader sounds okay to me. [Laughter.]
Leader Pelosi. As basic as the ABCs. A: Make It In America. Mr. Hoyer will elaborate on that, but it’s very important for us to stop the erosion of our industrial, our manufacturing, and our technological base. It’s important to our entrepreneurial spirit, to the development of our small businesses, and to—again, it’s important not only economically but to our national security that we are self-reliant, that we have the tools of production to defend the American people.
Building America’s infrastructure is very important. Mr. Clyburn will talk about that. That would be B, building America’s infrastructure. Both Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Clyburn will be talking about both of these basics. But we believe that, again, the entrepreneurial spirit, keeping America number one, putting people to work, are very well served, by addressing the trillions of dollars of deficit in our infrastructure—be it broadband, water systems, roads, highways, bridges. Mr. Clyburn will elaborate.
And C: Community Recovery Corps. As you have seen, in the past few months, whether it is Joplin, Missouri, the East Coast, fires in Texas, the storms in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, there is a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done. And many of our Members have told us they think it would be important for us to hire, have youth employment, hire young people. It might even be senior citizens—young at heart—who can help in the rebuilding of communities. And, we think it’s important. It can be an economic boomlet for these communities to have jobs created where people are hired from that community to do some of the recovery.
And so, in that spirit, more to come from our distinguished Democratic Whip, Mr. Hoyer.
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Question and Answer Session:
Q: Yea, I wondered what you’ll do about Chinese currency manipulation. Do you have new legislation on that or how do you intend address the problem?
Leader Pelosi. Steny’s going to speak to that today and Thursday as well, right?
Whip Hoyer. Yes. Well, we’ve had legislation on that—passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives as you know. The Senate didn’t move on it. We hoped to either have legislation move on that in conjunction with our Republican colleagues who, of course, now control the agenda. But because that was supported overwhelmingly and because clearly American workers making American products, or selling services for that matter, but products have been disadvantaged by the manipulation of currency prices, not driven by the market but driven by uncompetitive, and we believe violative of international rules. But we also believe that, we hoped the Senate would move on that as well. We may also have the opportunity to offer amendments on that issue.
Q: Is that legislation that would brand them a currency manipulator or…
Whip Hoyer. No, no, no, no. Excuse me. The legislation does not deal with a specific country. Clearly, China we believe, is in fact manipulating its currency. As I said, Chinese goods are cheaper here and American goods are more expensive there, which undermines our workers. But, the legislation itself is not country specific. It says that any trading partner that manipulates their currency to affect that end would be sanctioned under the legislation.
Leader Pelosi. And Mr. Critz has the discharge petition, which I think almost all House Democrats have signed. But you’ll have more on this, in what, Thursday, with Mr. Critz?
Yes?
Q: This question is actually for Mr. Becerra since he made some remarks about his role on the supercommittee in which he was [inaudible]. You said you want the President to go bold and show this leadership. When you guys get down to the nitty gritty, and when you have to start talking about entitlements and some of the different equations that have to be altered, how bold will the public perceive that to be when they say, “Oh this is going to change the context of our benefits and this is where the bulk of these cuts have to come from?”
Vice Chairman Becerra. Chad, my own personal opinion is that we should be bold in this supercommitte as well. I certainly believe that if we’re going to get America back on track, you can’t just fiddle on the edges. You have to really take on some of those sacred cows. And if we take close look at what drove us into these deficits, what turned us from having record surpluses in 2001 to record deficits in 2011? And if we go after the main drivers of the deficits, we can not only put America back on track, but if we do it the right way, we’ll put Americans back to work.
And so, be bold, Mr. President. Be bold, Congress. The American public is waiting for us, whether it is to hit that home run or throw that Hail Mary pass, we can do it. We have done it before, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t try.
Q: As a follow up to that for members of the supercommittee, are you worried that if the President lays out different jobs plans, infrastructure projects, those come with a cost and you have find 1.2 to 1.5 trillion in cuts. Is there a way in which laying out a bold jobs agenda will make your lives on the supercommittee more difficult?
Ranking Member Van Hollen. Happy to take a stab at that. Ah, no. Not at all. In fact, one of the things we’ve been trying to say here is that it’s absolutely essential to put America back to work if you want to reduce the deficit. And again, just about every economist out there will tell you we need to do two things. We can walk and chew gum at the same time here. We’ve got to focus on getting America back to work because every day the economy is stalled is another day that not only are Americans not able to provide for their families, but it’s another day where the deficit grows.
And so, you’ve got to get the economy moving again, those infrastructure projects putting people back to work, repairing bridges and schools and roads and all those kind of things are a very important part of it. It has to be in the context of a plan, a longer-term plan to reduce the deficit. And that is going to be the charge of the committee, to do those things but to recognize that there are actually mutually-reinforcing. The faster you put people back to work, as I indicated, the CBO says that you reduce the deficit at the same time. So that’s going to be a critical part, I think, of the work of the joint committee, just as it is going to be important to find a balanced approach over time to reducing the deficit.
I think all of us—the question was asked about going bold. I think all of us would like to set as a target for ourselves even more than $1.5 trillion. Simpson-Bowles, Rivlin-Domenici, those two bipartisan commissions looked at $4 trillion over 10 years. The action Congress just took in early August was about $900 billion over 10 years. So if we’re looking for that $4 trillion mark at the end of 10 years, we got a lot of work to do, but it begins by putting people back to work.
Whip Hoyer. Can I make a comment because—if I may, Madam Leader, make a comment.
Just, frankly the President is on message and focused on the objective that Mr. Van Hollen spoke about. So not only do I not think he is going to make it more difficult, I think the President showed over the last 6 months, as we dealt with the debt extension and the deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility, how committed he was to that objective. So contrary to what the premise of the question—is it going to make it more difficult?—frankly, I think the Congress, Republicans and Democrats, have a real ally in the President of the United States in moving towards a fiscally-responsible outcome of this special committee and the vote hopefully which will occur in December.
Q: The President this week is expected to roll out his jobs plan, and as a part of that would be infrastructure spending. There doesn’t look like there is going to be a lot of political appetite here on the Hill to pass anything that would result in more spending. So I’m just wondering, what’s the solution?
Leader Pelosi. Well, I think it’s in a message that the President will be taking to the American people. It’s a way to not only create jobs but to strengthen, again, our infrastructure—whether it’s our water supply, broadband. It’s not just roads and bridges. It’s other things too. And as Mr. Clyburn talked about, it’s about Home Star and Rural Star which are weatherizing and other initiatives that will create jobs immediately. So again, the basic premise that Mr. Hoyer, that everyone talked about here and Mr. Larson has been totally relentless on, is that you reduce the deficit by creating jobs. You create jobs, you have to make some investments to do so.
What’s special about infrastructure is, as you heard Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Clyburn talk about, is it has an infrastructure bank which would leverage fewer public dollars, federal public dollars for a bigger purpose. So this is a very exciting opportunity for us, and I hope that it won’t be missed. Infrastructure has had a bipartisan support in the past. I hope at this very urgent time for our economy it will continue to do so.
Mr. Larson, did you want to speak to that? Mr. Clyburn?
Assistant Leader Clyburn. Let me just use as an example the Rural Star program. That program, as it’s currently been undertaken in my district, allows for $7,000 per family. Now, we are doing a 10-year program. This program allows the $7,000 to be borrowed and you have to pay it back within the 10-year period and you pay it through your monthly bill to the co-op. Now, if you paying $600 a month in utility costs today, and that gets reduced as, and these are facts, to $280 a month, and you only got a $200 repayment on your loan, the family benefits between $150 and $200 every month.
And within that 10-year period, you’ve got people going back to work. You are purchasing goods and services that are made in America. You are putting bricklayers, electricians, [inaudible] people back to work. They are now paying taxes. And you look at that overall, it is a tremendous impact on deficit reduction. And it is all done in a 10-year period. So the concept is not anything that we are dreaming about. It’s being done right now. We are just trying to take it an extra mile.
Leader Pelosi. Mr. Larson?
Chairman Larson. Well listen, the National Journal came out with a couple of excellent articles, 11 ways to put people back to work in this economy without impacting the deficit whatsoever, 18 ways in which to invest in America and make sure that we’re both growing that economy and accomplishing the goals that Chris Van Hollen outlined. This is an enormous opportunity for Congress. And at a time, let’s be frank about this, when the general public’s impression of what happens here in Congress is at an all-time low, but this is a point for us to rally together—much like we did on the steps of the Capitol back in the aftermath of September 11th. It’s a time for us to seize greatness, as Mr. Becerra and Mr. Hoyer said, by pulling together as Americans. And that’s where I think the opportunity is here. It’s bipartisan. But we’re proud as Democrats to lead the way, and as Steny said, have a President that’s out there continuing to be an ally to both sides to make sure it’s America that we move forward during this time of crisis.
Leader Pelosi. In further response to your question—thank you, Mr. Larson. Congresswoman DeLauro is going door to door in her district now following up on the damage from Hurricane Irene, but I’m sure she would be available at any time to give you chapter and verse on how the infrastructure bank leverages public dollars in a way that represents a real savings to us.
It’s 100 days, approximately 100 days until the product is, what, November 23rd? Mr. Larson informs me it is 40 legislative days, something like that. Is that right? Our Whip knows that floor schedule better than any of us. Say 100 days, 40 legislative days—we have to make every one of them count. We have to make them count in terms of growing our economy to create jobs, to reduce the deficit. We have to make them count in strengthening the middle class. We have to make them count in demonstrating leadership of our country in removing all doubt that we will be responsible as we prepare for the future.
And again, we are very proud of the President, look forward to his remarks in a couple of days and look forward to working with him to have success at the table of 12. That absolutely is essential, and we are all committed to that success. Thank you all very much.
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