Contact: Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616
Washington D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer held a press availability today in the Capitol calling on Republicans, who have held the House Majority for over 330 days without producing a jobs agenda, to take action to put the American people back to work. Below is a transcript of the press availability:
Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon. Last month, Mr. Hoyer, our distinguished Democratic Whip, Mr. Clyburn, who had to leave for the airport but who joined us in signing a letter to Speaker Boehner asking him to pass the President’s extension of Unemployment Insurance, extending the payroll tax cut for the middle class, and to pass legislation, an extension of SGR. These are three very important issues that economists tell us build the economy and, in terms of Unemployment Insurance, payroll tax, inject demand into the economy to create jobs.
Last night, the Republicans in the Senate rejected the Republican proposal. A majority of Republicans voted against the Republican proposal in the Senate. These are important, important initiatives. The economists, independent, objective economists tell us that, again, 400,000 jobs would be lost if we don’t pass what the President has suggested in the expanded extension of UI and the payroll tax and other initiatives.
But these two are very important because they expire on January 1, December 31. We can’t leave here without passing these. We have to stop toying with the American people and their economic security. We really do. It is a job—we know that we have to do it. It’s time for us to sit down and do this in a bipartisan way as we did when President Bush was President. Christmas is coming. Families are concerned. The deadline of December 31 is fast upon us.
Again, last month we sent the letter. Last night, the Republicans in the Senate rejected their own plan. There has to be a better way to get the job done. Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat. And the Republicans refuse, they want to keep in doubt whether the middle class will have a tax cut, hold that hostage to protecting tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our country. It’s just not right.
I’m going to yield now to our distinguished Whip.
Whip Hoyer. Thank you very much, Madam Leader. Coal in the stocking ought not to be what we leave for the American people at the end of this year. We are going to have some 3 million people who are going to be without ability to support themselves and their families if we don’t pass the Unemployment Insurance and do it in the next few days. An awful lot of people, working men and women, average-salaried people, are going to find their salaries, their take-home pay reduced if we do not extend and follow the President’s recommendation for both individuals and small businesses.
So that I am hopeful that, unlike what happened in the Senate when a majority of the United States Senate voted to extend the payroll tax, Republicans offered an alternative, and as the Leader has pointed out, couldn’t get a majority of their own party to support their recommendation. But at least it did recognize that we ought to extend the payroll tax.
So I am very hopeful that the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate will work with us to ensure that coal is not the gift from the United States Congress in the stockings of the American people, that was pass an extension of the tax cut and indeed expand that tax cut, which economists, as the Leader has pointed out, [say] will have a very substantially positive effect on jobs and growth in the economy. And pass the Unemployment Insurance as well, so that we do not have millions of people, millions of our fellow citizens without the ability to put food on their table in the coming year. Thank you.
Leader Pelosi. It’s important to note that although a majority voted in the Senate for extending the payroll tax cut, we still need 60 votes in the Senate. And that majority did not make a successful passage of the process to move the legislation along.
And then when they had their own plan, as the Whip said, a majority of the Republicans voted against their own plan. What is it that the middle class did to the Republicans that they are taking it out on them so harshly and not passing this payroll tax and saying, “We are protecting the tax cut for the wealthy, but we are not extending the tax cut for the middle class.”
Any questions?
Q: Madam Leader, the Republicans said that they want to pave the way through the Keystone pipeline, auction off some spectrum, and ease environmental regulation, as part of the package to extend payroll tax cut and Unemployment Insurance. Wanted to get your reaction to that.
Leader Pelosi. I think that they are just, this is evasive. You know, they are taking a circuitous route to some, to nowhere. And the fact is, we know what we have to do. If we have to pay for the payroll tax cut, and we are perfectly willing to do that, even though the Republicans never want to pay for the tax cut for the wealthiest people in our country. Doesn’t that strike you as funny? For the middle income tax cut it has to be paid for. Tax cuts for the wealthy, we don’t pay for that.
But in any event, we are willing to be fiscally sound in terms of saying we want to extend this, we have confidence it will create jobs, it will bring revenue to the treasury. And we can pay for the payroll tax cut, and we can pay for the extension of SGR, which is very important to America’s seniors, by doing what the Republicans did in their budget, by taking the funds from the overseas contingency operations account.
Q: Madam Leader, do you have enough leverage to insist on the tax on income over a million being part of the package? Or are you really focused on some other kind of offset?
Leader Pelosi. Well, you know, time is of the essence. Mr. Hoyer may have a few…
Whip Hoyer. Our leverage is not the issue. Votes are the issue. And your question is, “Do we have the votes?”
Certainly you saw in the United States Senate, a majority of the Members of the United States Senate—unfortunately the Senate requires a supermajority to do anything. To put a bill on the floor requires 60 votes. The American public doesn’t understand that. I don’t understand it, very frankly. I think it’s a dysfunctional body that has a majority of the representatives, as a matter of fact, well over a majority of the American public voting for the passage of that bill, and it still doesn’t pass, notwithstanding the fact you have 51.
We’re going to continue to advocate on behalf of working Americans to get this, make sure their tax cut, and it was effected last year, is extended and expanded so we can continue to grow the economy, grow jobs, and create those 400,000 jobs that economists believe will result.
Q: What about the potential for using OCO money?
Leader Pelosi. Well that has been something that Republicans have used in their budgeting, so I think if there is anything that is important, it is the economic security of America’s families. And we could use it for extending the payroll tax and removing all the uncertainty in SGR. SGR is initials for something that means seniors will be able to see the doctor of their choice under Medicare. It’s very important to our seniors, and it is a priority. And this money, this account has over a trillion dollars in it. It wouldn’t take half of it to cover what we’re talking about.
Q: And Mr. Hoyer, you feel like yesterday’s Senate vote was only a message about the millionaire’s tax. It did not say that the Senate doesn’t have an appetite to expand the payroll tax cut, rather than hold it static at 4.2. You think the Senate still has an appetite to expand it.
Whip Hoyer. I don’t know the answer to that question if you are talking about 60, because I don’t know if they got the fight to get that vote, but I think that the majority of the United States Senate indicated they had that appetite. Whether we have 60 or not, I don’t know.
What the President has said is, we’ve got an economy that is struggling, although we had some good news today. Unemployment rate went from 9 down to 8.6. We added 140,000 private sector jobs. Unfortunately, we continue to lose public sector jobs, about 20,000. So we had a net 120,000 appreciation of jobs.
But the answer to your question is, economists tell us if we do what the President suggests, we are going to expand the economy and grow jobs. And that’s what the American people want us to do.
Q: This morning there seemed to be a lot of disarray in the Republican conference about whether or not to support payroll tax extension. So it seems that anything that would extend it is going to need Democratic support in the House. Do you guys feel you have the leverage and are you willing to negotiate anything in terms of spending cuts that you would ordinarily be opposed to?
Leader Pelosi. Well, let me just say, I am not an expert on disarray on the Republican caucus. But I do know that the Democrats put the heat on passing the payroll tax cut, and that disarray may be a result of them feeling the heat. The American people know that this is about fairness. It’s urgent for us to pass this. And, again, jobs are at stake and the purchasing power of our middle class during this holiday season, which is important to our economy, depends on this.
We are always willing to talk about some offsets when it comes to this. But OCO is a perfect place to go because with the winding down of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan too, there are these resources. They will be used for something. And we are saying they should be used as a priority to give a tax cut to the middle class and other issues that are of concern to the middle class. But we are always open to hear what they have to say. So far, we haven’t heard anything that even sounds like a serious attempt at a bipartisan compromise.
Whip Hoyer. Let me say to that, talk is cheap. When President Bush said the country was in trouble, Democrats responded in a bipartisan way. When the Republicans couldn’t keep government running without our help, they got our help. The second time they couldn’t keep government running without our help, we gave them the help. They couldn’t make sure that America paid its debts, paid its bills, Democrats helped.
So the answer to your question is, yes. Democrats have shown—not just talked about it—have shown that we are prepared, as we did just recently when the Republicans couldn’t pass their own appropriations bill, the Republicans’ appropriations bill. It came out of their committee with the support of their Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. 101 of their folks voted against. They only got 131. You need 218. They have more than 218. When historically, frankly, when Speaker Pelosi was putting legislation that was needed by the American public, too often we got zero support.
So the answer to your question is an emphatic yes. We are prepared to cooperate on behalf of the welfare of our country and of our people.
Thank you all.
Leader Pelosi. We cannot go home for Christmas unless we pass this legislation. The clock is ticking.
See you all.