Stakeout Media Availability with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader, Following Their Meeting With the President

Statement

Subject: The Stimulus Package

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SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Leader.

Good afternoon. We just had a productive conversation with the president on the stimulus package. The purpose of the meeting was to hear a report on the president's trip to the Middle East, and we spent a good deal of time on that subject as well and a great exchange with the president on that.

But on the stimulus package, again, we talked about doing something as soon as is legislatively possible, something that is targeted, and something that is temporary, in order to inject a stimulus into the economy.

We know throughout the households of America that people -- many people are living paycheck to paycheck, and they need this economy to turn around. We want them to feel the full benefit of it. Now we see across the world that the state of the economy in the U.S. is having an impact as well. So the urgency we feel at home is now even more urgent as we see the impact of our markets on others.

So I look forward to working in a bipartisan way, and our conversations continue. And again, recognizing the legislative constraints that we have, I feel confident that we will have a bipartisan agreement.

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SPEAKER PELOSI: That it is urgent and that we will work in a bipartisan way. We think that message that is sent to the American people about bipartisanship at a time when they are feeling the financial pain will instill confidence in the consumer and hopefully in the markets as well. But we haven't been into the particulars yet.

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Q Madame Speaker, do you agree with the president when he says that the economy is inherently strong?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I certainly hope so. And we would not want to contribute to any feelings that a recession is imminent. But we do know that there has been a downturn, and we want to lessen the impact of that and prevent it from getting to be more of a downturn.

So this is about one thing in this package: Is it a stimulus? So, whatever it is that we are considering, it must meet that one criterion, does it stimulate the economy, does it put money into the hands of those who will spend it and to do so to inject demand into the economy to create jobs to turn the economy around.

So again, we hope our economy is strong, but we will have to act as if it is in a downturn, because that's how it is felt at the kitchen tables across America.

Q Speaker Pelosi, are you open to a lot of business tax cuts being part of this package -- (off mike)?

SPEAKER PELOSI: To the extent that they are a stimulus, yes, I am open to those. In fact, some of the business initiatives that are being bandied about in the press have been part of our innovation agenda. Whether they're a stimulus, we shall see as we subject them to that standard.

Q Senator, why shouldn't you give a rebate to everybody?

SEN. REID: We're going to work on those details. We have discussed that. But I think it isn't really a smart thing for us to negotiate this here today. I (don't think we ought to ?) do it.

Q Aw, come on. (Off mike.) (Laughter.)

SPEAKER PELOSI: (Laughs.) Thank you all.

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