CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS 16:00

September 22, 2004 Wednesday

HEADLINE: Battleground Florida; New Attack Ads; Associates of Tom DeLay Indicted

GUESTS: Roy Blunt, Nancy Pelosi, Mike McCurry, Brian Crowley, Glen Johnson, Perry Bacon, Betty Castor, Nicolle Devenish

BYLINE: Judy Woodruff, Dana Bash, Wolf Blitzer, Candy Crowley, Bob Franken, Paula Zahn, Joe Johns, William Schneider

BODY:

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

WOODRUFF: House Republicans took time out today to pat themselves on the back. Led by conference chair Deborah Pryce of Ohio, the Republicans are celebrating 10 years as the majority in the House, and they vow to continue their dominance for the next 10 years.

Not to be outdone, House Democrats today outlined their plan to help middle-class families. They call their agenda the New Partnership For America's Future. We're going to speak with the Republican House whip in just a few minutes.

But we are joined now on Capitol Hill by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Nancy Pelosi, good to see you, and thank you for talking with me.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Nice to see you, Judy. My pleasure.

WOODRUFF: I want to ask you about what you talked about today and the agenda for the future. Your focus is primarily on domestic issues, but with so much concern on the part of Americans on terrorism and the war in Iraq, are domestic issues really getting through and your positions on them getting through to the voters?

PELOSI: Well, we don't always talk-only talk about domestic issues. Prosperity, fairness, community, accountability, all of that are very important parts of our Democratic New Partnership For America's Future.

But national security is, of course, the preeminent issue, to protect the American people from the clear and present danger of terrorism, to have a military second to none, to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, to build alliances with other countries that will help us keep the peace in the world, to honor to our commitments to our veterans, and not just honor them with words, and, of course, to keep our homeland safe from terror. They're key, important parts of the Democratic Partnership For the Future, and in addition to which we talk about prosperity for a wide range of Americans, opportunity through education, fairness, especially in our health care system, where health care is a right, not a privilege, a sense of community, where we have a safe and healthy environment for our children, accountability.

All of what we are proposing is pay as you go, rather than the deficit situation that we're in now. But national security is our first responsibility to the American people.

WOODRUFF: Well, one of the things you do talk about is middle- class tax relief, and yet just yesterday your Republican counterparts in the House talked about three different times-kinds of middle- class tax cuts and extending those. Have they in a way taken that issue off the table because they have moved first on it?

PELOSI: No, they haven't.

In fact, they're a little disingenuous in what they propose because what they really want is their 23 percent national sales tax. And tomorrow-today, we rolled out our positive agenda, the New Partnership For America's Future, and tomorrow we'll be pointing out some of the differences between Democrats and Republicans under the leadership of Charles Rangel. Our senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee will be telling the American people about their 23 percent national sales tax, which is very regressive and damaging to prosperity in our country.

So they can talk about any tax cuts they want right now. Their real agenda is to eliminate them all and just go for the 23 percent tax cut-not tax cut, the sales tax. But we're today-very delighted. We have consensus in the Democratic Party. Democrats are unified. They are focused. They have established their priorities around six core values to secure and strengthen the middle class, to protect our country, to build our prosperity, to expand opportunity for our children, and to make the future better for the next generation.

WOODRUFF: Well, a couple of the social issues, what we call social issues that the Republicans are talking about, among them abortion and banning gay marriage, in fact, that's something-the latter is something they want a vote on, is something that I gather you do not address in the statement that you're issuing today. Is that because these issues are working against Democrats now?

PELOSI: Well, we do talk about guaranteeing the constitutional rights of all Americans. And that includes a broad range of issues, as you know.

But this is a consensus document where we have credible proposals, clarity in our presentation to the public, and it's all paid for. So, again, I'm very, very proud of what we were able to do and what is included here. And I know that the American people will judge us for what we are pledging to do for them, rather than look around for what isn't in it.

WOODRUFF: All right, we are going to have to leave it there.

PELOSI: Thank you, Judy.

WOODRUFF: The House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi.

PELOSI: Here it is, the House Democratic New Partnership For America's Future.

WOODRUFF: Thank you very much.

PELOSI: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: Getting in her plug. All right, the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, thanks very much.

Well, 10 years as the majority. Just ahead, can the Republicans stay on a roll in the House? I'll get Majority Whip Roy Blunt's take on that and some other issues.