Press Conference With House Democrats - End of 108th Session Wrap-Up
Federal News Service October 8, 2004 Friday
HEADLINE: PRESS CONFERENCE WITH HOUSE DEMOCRATS SUBJECT: END OF 108TH SESSION WRAP-UP
PARTICIPANTS: HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA); REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER (D-MD); REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ); AND REPRESENTATIVE JOHN SPRATT (D-SC)
BODY:
REP. PELOSI: Good morning. We'll shortly be joined by other members of the leadership; Congressman Jim Clyburn, the vice chair of the Democratic Caucus, and Mr. Spratt, the assistant to the minority leader.
But I'm very pleased to be here now with our distinguished Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, the chair of our caucus, Congressman Menendez of New Jersey.
We're here to talk about missed opportunities in this Congress. For the past two years, Republicans have controlled the entire government-the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. They have had the opportunity to address the concerns of the American people. And yet, from day one, Republicans have wasted and squandered this 108th Congress. They have been destructive and unethical. And they have consistently made decisions that are against the interests of the American people.
Our first responsibility as elected officials is to protect the American people. There is a clear and present danger of terrorism to our homeland, but Republicans have failed to meet that challenge. They have failed to give our police and firefighters the resources they need. They have failed to secure our borders and ports. They have failed to screen cargo coming into our country. And they have failed to buy up the loose nuclear material, to name a few.
Meeting our responsibility on homeland security will be the first order of business when Democrats win the House.
Americans deserve prosperity. We need good jobs and a growing economy. Yet Republicans have failed to do anything to create jobs in America. This morning we learned that fewer than 100,000 jobs were created last month, and we lost another 18,000 manufacturing jobs. These disappointing job numbers confirm that President Bush will be the first president to lose jobs in his four years in office in 70 years-since Herbert Hoover was president during the Great Depression.
Yet, Republicans have failed to pass a robust job-creating highway bill. They have failed to reform the tax code, which continues to-which continues, as recently as 12 hours ago-which continues to encourage outsourcing of jobs overseas. They have even failed to reauthorize the Small Business Administration. They talk about small business, and yet they won't give them access to capital by funding the 7(a) program and, again, reauthorizing the SBA. Instead, Republicans have fought to give irresponsible tax breaks to those who need them least. And they have used taxpayer money to create new incentives to shift those taxpayer jobs overseas.
Think about it yourself. You're a taxpayer. They take the taxes that you pay to give an incentive to a company to ship your job overseas. You're underwriting your own unemployment.
Democrats will lead on the economy. We will create new jobs, not sit back and watch them disappear, and we have a plan for it. We will provide tax breaks for the middle class, and we will assure access to capital for small business.
Republicans have also failed to hold down prescription drug costs and make health care affordable. Instead, Republicans have fought for special interests, giving a $139 billion windfall to big drug companies and creating a $46 billion slush fund for HMOs. And they did that under an ethical cloud.
Democrats will lead. On the first day that John Kerry is president, he will send Congress a plan to increase access to quality affordable health care. House Democrats will stand with him in that effort, and we will give seniors a defined, affordable, guaranteed prescription drug benefit under Medicare.
On education, Republicans have failed our children miserably. They have underfunded No Child Left Behind by about -- 9 -- it's 9.4 billion (dollars) this year, around $30 billion in the past three years, and they have failed to make college affordable.
Democrats will lead.
(Background noise from car alarm or the like.) See how this goes for a moment.
Democrats will lead -- (noise continues) -- I'll have to use my "mother of five" voice now. (Laughs.)
Democrats will lead. We will invest in a fully funded education system, and we will make college tuition tax-deductible.
By their destructive choices against the interest of the American people, Republicans have proven themselves unfit to lead. America deserves better. America can do better.
With our New Partnership for America's Future, we lay out our approach to protecting the American people, to creating jobs, to expanding access to quality health care and growing opportunity for our children by investing in their education. Democrats have a vision of hope and optimism for the future. The strength of America is measured in how we protect our people and how we provide for a common prosperity. With the right choices, we will move beyond the destructive policies and ethical failures of this Republican Congress. Democrats will build a strong and secure middle class that our country deserves.
With that, I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished whip, the gentleman from Maryland, who has been beating this drum about this do- nothing Congress, the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Hoyer.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
REP. PELOSI: It's clear from the presentations of our colleagues that this is a Congress of missed opportunities; a missed opportunity to create jobs, to expand access to health care, to invest in our children's education; missed opportunities to protect our homeland. These failures occurred while the Republicans were also being fiscally irresponsible and ethically unfit.
With that, we'll be pleased to take any questions you may have.
Q Madame Leader, I just came from a press conference with Senate Republican leaders, and they are blaming the things that they didn't get accomplished on Daschle and Senate Democrats.
REP. PELOSI: Of course.
Q While that was maybe aimed more at the Senate Democrats, I'm just curious, could you address that issue, especially since they control the White House and the House and the Senate?
REP. PELOSI: One of the hallmarks --
Q I'm sorry-with an eye towards the election and whether or not their argument will play with the American people.
REP. PELOSI: What you're telling me that the Republican leadership in the Senate said is very consistent with the lack of professionalism of the Republicans across the board. They don't take responsibility for anything. They have, as you have said, the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and they cannot lead. For them to pass the blame on to Senator Daschle-the awesome power of the minority leader in the House and in the Senate-it's just on the face of it an insult to the intelligence of the American people.
They failed because they failed to create ideas that met the needs of the American people. They failed because they have an agenda that is a special-interest agenda, so when people oppose it, they say: You're responsible for my not passing an irresponsible agenda.
I know that Mr. Hoyer's chomping at the bit to get to this question, but I would just say this. The president's not responsible for the war? The secretary of Defense is not responsible for the deaths and the conduct of the war? The Senate leadership is not responsible for the actions that they take in the Senate? If they had such good ideas, they would have more success. God bless Tom Daschle for whatever he may have done to deter them in failing the American people further.
But let's be real about this: The buck doesn't stop anyplace around here. Nobody is responsible. That lack of professionalism is something that is not a good example to our children, to our troops and to the rest of the country.
But it's not surprising.
REP. HOYER: I agree with Leader Pelosi. The American public are not going to be misled. It is sad that a party that controls the White House, the House and the Senate still tries to blame others for its failures. When you look at the budget impasse, as Leader Spratt has pointed out, the first time since 1974 that a party has been unable to pass its budget when it controlled all the elements of power. I suppose Bob Dole as the minority leader was incompetent, could not stop us Democrats from doing that. And Mr. Daschle is very able.
But the fact of the matter is, the disagreement is among Republicans; not between Democrats and Republicans, but among Republicans on the budget and on budget enforcement, because the Senate-a number of Republicans want to responsibly address the issue, as was recommended by this president in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He changed his mind this year. But some very principled Republicans stuck with the idea of bringing balance by budget discipline to the budget.******* Matching of next tape 100809AT.XD stuck with the idea of bringing balance by budget discipline to the budget. They didn't pass a transportation bill, a highway bill-not because of Democrats,
They didn't pass a transportation bill, a highway bill-not because of Democrats, but because there was a Republican disagreement between the Republican White House, the Republican Senate, and the Republican House. They didn't pass an energy bill-not because of Democrats, not because of Tom Daschle, but because there was a disagreement between Republicans in the Senate and Tom DeLay and special interests.
So, in every instance of failure you can point to a deep disagreement either philosophically or practically between Republicans. They are a party deeply divided who have led a failed Congress and a failed administration. America needs to make a change.
REP. MENENDEZ: Can I just add one-can I just add one thing, Madame Leader?
Only in Washington would Republicans, who control everything-the White House, the House and the Senate-blame Democrats, who control nothing, for all of their failures. That can only happen in Washington. Can only happen in-only in Washington would that happen.
And secondly, I listened to so much about the Republican mantra of responsibility. We heard it during welfare reform, Americans taking responsibility, that we all have responsibility for our own lives. Well, Republicans should live up to that value, which is in fact responsibility. They are irresponsible in the deficit that they have created. They are irresponsible in that they can't fund the government through the normal process and get a budget. They are irresponsible that they have lost the opportunities to secure this country. And so the American people, knowing that that is a value of responsibility, will hold them responsible on November 2nd.
Q What's your reaction to -- (off mike) -- Mr. DeLay -- (off mike) -- ethics committee -- (off mike). And any reaction to that?
REP. PELOSI: Pathetic. These people are-nobody is responsible for anything!
In our New Partnership for America's Future, the Democrats-one of the values that we are presenting is-following up on what Mr. Menendez said-is accountability. Put us in charge. We will live up to our-we will be accountable to the American people for how we meet their needs and how we account for our performance, and how we've managed responsibly the budget and the resources of our country. And we will do so in an ethically sound way.
So for someone to have had a 5-5 -- five Democrats, five Republicans on the ethics committee unanimously vote to rebuke Mr. DeLay once again-third time in one week, fourth time in five years, and apparently more to come, in terms of Texas and Indian tribes and the rest-so I don't know how much more it would take for you all to start posing the questions that you've done of others when they have been ethically challenged and say this is a road too far.
Clearly, Mr. DeLay, in the action that he took that you describe, if that is so, does not support the ethical standards of the House and the committee that has been established to uphold that ethical standard. He is proving once again that he will go to all lengths to abuse power and to undermine even a bipartisan, unanimous decision of the ethics committee.
REP. SPRATT: I'd just like to add that it is a hallmark of those who seek authoritarian government to attack their enemies not on the merits but by the use of their power. Nixon's enemies list was a perfect example of that inclination that has been demonstrated so often by the party presently in power.
I am not surprised that their response to four separate-over a five-year period-condemnation of the leader's conduct as unethical and contrary to the interest of the House of Representatives, the people's house, is not to say, "We need to change our conduct and change our leadership," but to attack those who raise-who have the temerity to raise the issue of such misconduct when they are found unanimously by five Republicans and five Democrats to be correct in their assertion.
The enemies list is alive and well in Mr. DeLay's Washington.
REP. PELOSI: It would just be interesting to see how long the Republican House members want to be painted with this brush.
Any other questions? If not, thank you all very much.
Q Thank you.
REP. PELOSI: See you in a month, maybe sooner.