Press Conference with Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Interview
Copyright ©2008 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. PELOSI: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I know that our distinguished visitors would be pleased to take any questions you may have.
Q Madame Speaker --
REP. PELOSI: Yes?
Q -- you've often say that the downturn in the economy is tied to spending on Iraq and Afghanistan. So I'm wondering, since the supplemental bill will be one of the only appropriations bills this year, do you plan to include economic stimulus or economic measures in that bill?
And also, how do you respond to critics who say on both the -- (inaudible) -- who say that as you craft this bill by skipping normal processes, that you're abandoning principles of transparency and good government?
REP. PELOSI: Well, I would rather have -- I'll answer the question. But because our guests have to leave, if you want to take advantage of their presence, I'd hope to have some questions directed toward what they had to say.
We will have -- yes, I have said over and over again, this war has taken us deeply into debt, which is taking us into recession. The opportunity costs financially of this war are tremendous. Of course, they don't compare to the big price that we are paying otherwise.
Mr. Sinai, would you like to talk about the relationship of the cost of the war to our opportunity costs in the economy?
MR. SINAI: Yes.
The war is -- that's all in another arena. But the economic effects of the Iraq War are very big, have been for a long time. One of the most obvious ones is the amount of funds spent and where, if we wanted to spend those funds, and where else we would spend them.
When the economy is doing well, it's easy not to worry. But the economy is not doing well. And so now this pace of expenditure and the wisdom of it and what we do, aside now from politics and issues of security, becomes a very big issue for the U.S. economy.
We have calculated the loss in growth, in our work, and the loss in jobs from the cost of the Iraq War. And there's no doubt, it's been an economic negative.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't engage in international security confrontations. I'm not saying that. I'm not an isolationist. That's another issue. But the economic costs of this one, over this protracted period of time, are more than the economy can afford now.
REP. PELOSI: And today, we'll be presenting our supplemental to the House Democratic Caucus. Chairman Emanuel has a meeting scheduled for 12:00. I think he's going to be meeting the press following that. So we'll be able to tell you more about what's in the supplemental as, I think, was one of the six questions contained in your first segment.
(Laughter.)
Q (Off mike.)
REP. PELOSI: No.
(Cross talk, laughter.)
I mean, it's absolutely a non-issue. It's absolutely a non-issue and kind of disingenuous on the Republicans to say such a thing. And they know why.
But again we'll deal with that issue at 1:00, after we present our proposal, and have a discussion of it and perhaps amend it as a result of our conversation with our members.
Q Madame Speaker, one of the biggest components in the economic downturn has been housing. You're going to have a housing bill on the floor tomorrow. Republicans are saying --
REP. PELOSI: You know what, Mr. -- the chairman's coming back in about one minute, so why don't you save that question for when he comes back, because he likes to, shall we say, control the debate over that subject.
Yes, ma'am?
Q Madame Speaker, when do you think the second stimulus bill will reach the House floor? And what about the size of it? What will the size look like in relation to the earlier package of --
REP. PELOSI: Well, those two questions are exactly the ones that I asked the administration; when and how big will this stimulus package be. It's clear that there is a need for a second stimulus. Those affected by job loss in this downturn in the economy need unemployment insurance. That serves two purposes. It meets the needs of the unemployed; it also stimulates the economy. And so we will probably have that in the supplemental, and hope that the president will sign it. But if not and if we need more, that would be in a second stimulus package.
As for timing, the president has said that he wants to see how this first stimulus package works before going to a second stimulus, if he would go there. I don't think that we have that amount of time to wait. There are indications that this downturn is steeper than it was when we created the firs stimulus package. We know that. We don't have to see much more to know that some of the elements that were rejected in January and February, like unemployment insurance, LIHEAP, Medicaid, aid to states, those kinds of things, still need to be addressed. So we would hope that -- (to staff) -- could you ask Mr. Frank to come in? -- so we would hope that tit will be soon. But we are in conversation with the administration about it.
REP. EMANUEL: If I could add one point here.
REP. PELOSI: Please.
REP. EMANUEL: I think you know this, but I'll be real quick. The president has said, as it relates to the supplemental, that he doesn't believe there should be any domestic investments there; and as it relates to a second stimulus, he doesn't believe that there should be a need for it there. So when it comes to America's needs, he's been quite clear, which is his approach is wait and see. And one of us who deal with constituents can tell you they don't have the luxury of a wait-and-see approach on the economy.
REP. PELOSI: The president has for a long time been in denial on the state of the economy. He was to begin with. It wasn't until Chairman Bernanke described the state of the economy before the Budget Committee that the president was forced to face reality then, and now he'll be forced to face it again.
Do any of our colleagues have anything to add on that subject?
There was a question for you, Mr. Chairman, about the housing bill.
Q Mr. Frank.
REP. PELOSI: And that will be the last question.
Q Thank you. Excuse me. Pardon me.
REP. FRANK: Certainly.
Q I'm getting -- (off mike). (Laughter.)
REP. FRANK: That's to pardon you for that part. It doesn't --
REP. PELOSI: (Off mike.) (Laughter.)
REP. FRANK: The pardon-you doesn't necessarily extend to the last part. I'll reserve the --
Q (Off mike.)
Republicans today were really beating up the housing bill that's going to come to the floor a little later this week here. Is -- with the election in Louisiana and what might happen in Mississippi here, is it really hard for them, regardless of the nature of what this housing bill might do, the process of this housing bill, for them to vote against the housing bill at this point in time?
REP. FRANK: Well, it was obviously hard for 10 Republicans out of the 31 who voted in our committee do that, because 10 Republicans voted for it, especially people from Ohio and Florida. You know, it may not be hard if you're from one of those states where this hasn't been a problem, although I think people who take that view are short- sighted, because this has been a major cause of the overall recession.
It also -- as you know, Congressional Budget Office gave a low- end estimate of how much it was going to -- how many people would participate, but they also gave a pretty reasonable estimate of the cost: 2.7 billion (dollars.) What the CBO says is, for every foreclosure that is averted, it will cost the federal government over time about $5,000. Frankly, I think that's a pretty good deal when you look at the cost of foreclosure to the family, to the property values in the neighborhood, to the municipality that's losing property taxes -- and Mayor Franklin knows -- and then has to send the police and the fire department and the sanitation people out there.
So yeah, I think it's kind of difficult, especially since there is no alternative. And I stress, again, this is part of a package. The president asked us for three specific things, all which we had been doing in the House: the mortgage revenue bonds, which the Ways and Means Committee has done, GSE reform and FHA modernization. Plus the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has a very good first- time home buyer tax credit.
When the president insists on three things and he's going to get them, all of them in a form acceptable to him, and then objects to a fourth, which they've never threatened to veto and which a third of the Republicans in the committee voted for and which the chairman of the Federal Reserve supported -- I would send you to the speech that he gave yesterday, Chairman Bernanke, endorsing what we're about to do tomorrow in that fourth piece -- yeah, I think it would be hard to vote for people. But then I think it would be hard to do a lot of what they do. (Laughter.)
REP. RANGEL: I just want you to know that the tax provisions have overwhelming bipartisan support in the Ways and Means Committee, in terms not only, as Barney pointed out, giving 7,500 tax relief to first-time homebuyers; expanding the affordable housing through low- interest bonds; expanding the number that will be available for states; making the larger standard deduction for taxpayers that don't itemize.
And they too made it easy for me to work with Barney, because we did it in a bipartisan way. How this can be rejected in the local communities, I don't see it.
I might hurriedly add that in the state of New York, we have lost, which I consider the most bipartisan delegation we've had in the House, we've lost a lot of Republicans that just feel that it is not worth sticking around under this type of thinking with the Republican Party.
REP. PELOSI: Thank you all very much.
Source