Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Joe Crowley, and Congressman Steve Israel held a press conference following a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus with President Obama. Below are the Leader's opening remarks followed by a question and answer session:
"Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We had a very enthusiastic meeting with the President of the United States. He reiterated some of the message that has gone across the country about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, seeing everything we do through the eyes of how we can, responsibly and in a balanced way, reduce the deficit, to create jobs, to build a better future for our children. In a very succinct way, it was a really masterful presentation that he made on the subject of jobs and the future.
"On the subject of the Affordable Care Act, we all agreed: nothing succeeds like success. And it's really important and we're confident that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act is successful. It's about our children. And everything he has talked about, whether it is income disparity, whether it's universal pre-school, whether it's the Affordable Care Act, you name it, it's about our children and giving them and their families a better shot to participate in the prosperity of our country.
"I was very proud of what this President has been doing on the road and as President of the United States. And today, we had the chance to go back and forth on some of the issues so he could hear some of our priorities and we his. I saluted the President because his birthday is this week -- the persistent President -- he has been persistent. He's of course very brilliant, and a leader, and articulate, and has strategic thinking as he goes forward. But it is his persistence on behalf of America's working families. That is something that serves our country so very, very well. And it is that persistence that will improve their lives. We are very proud of our President and we had a great meeting with him this morning.
"Now, I would like to yield to our distinguished Democratic Whip, Mr. Hoyer."
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Q. Yes, Mr. Chairman what was the -- the President -- the persistent President has had these ideas, and more ideas, and more ideas, but the House Republicans have not picked them up. Other than going to the voters in 2014, what could you do between now and 2014 to see some of these ideas actually become law? Can you discuss that?
Mr. Becerra. I know the Leader will want to respond because she's the one that mentioned the President as the persistent President. But I will simply say this: our Members are ready to go out in August and talk to their constituents. We are asking them to please be out there as often as possible in August to talk to Americans and talk to them about how we are ready to work with the President to help this country create more jobs, to continue to expand and improve our healthcare opportunities, and to make sure we get things done like fixing a broken immigration system. So we're ready, we're looking for our Republican colleagues to join us. But make no mistake we are ready to work with the President, compromise, as has been said earlier, but work to get some of this done because we know that while we've created over seven million jobs in the last 40 months, that's not enough. We want more.
Q. Did the President ask you to do that for your August break? To go out there and
Mr. Becerra. Madam Leader, I'll let you go.
Leader Pelosi. Well, let me go to your first question. President Lincoln as you've heard me say over and over again said: "Public sentiment is everything." And the only progress we have made in this 202 days that this Congress has existed, has been a result of public sentiment. Republicans in the Senate realized after 70 percent of Hispanic community voted Democratic, not just for President, but for Congress, that it was probably a good idea to move forward for a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform. It wasn't until, and it was hundreds of days late, but nonetheless until the message was very clear in the public about the Violence Against Women Act that the Republican Leadership brought it to the floor, overwhelmingly vote against it, but nonetheless they brought it to the floor.
So, income inequality for example that the President is talking about, there is tremendous support for raising the minimum wage. That would help lessen the disparity in terms of income inequality and making more pay, especially for women as you know we have in our women's agenda. But, we don't really want to wait until the election and have these be items on the election agenda, we want to get something done sooner, because the agenda of the Republicans saying to the President: "Our agenda is nothing and our time table is never." Well, never doesn't work for the American people when they need jobs. So whatever subject you can name comes back to, does it create jobs? Does it reduce the deficit? Let's take the conversation to the public. We hope to succeed with the issues, that's more important than the election.
I will say another thing. Sometimes the public turns off to the discussion of process here, obstruction, this or that, it's understandable. Also, the inside language on "are we going to raise the debt ceiling? Are we going to shut down government?" What does all of that mean? Well, what it means to you and to everyone with a 401K, is that they are going to be losers in this. And I think it's really important for people to know that these decisions that we're making here have ramifications in the lives of the American people and how that affects them. How many of you check your 401K on a regular basis? Maybe you don't, but many Americans do.
Since the President has been President, the stock market has soared and proving their individual lot any discussion of a shutdown or not reaching the debt ceiling, undermining the full faith and credit of the United States of America hurts people individually. They should know that. So, this is about a few good items to take to the public on how it affects them. And the most important thing is how we create good-paying jobs as we reduce the deficit to strengthen the middle class. So, we are depending on you to get the message out. [Congressman] Steny [Hoyer]
Mr. Hoyer. I just want to make a brief comment because I think the President has indicated, as much as any President with whom I've worked over the last 33 years, a willingness to talk to those with whom he disagrees or disagree with him to get something done and to compromise. And he's indicated that in a budget he submitted this year, he included a compromise. But let me make a point to that all of you know very well, where do we make compromise in the Congress of the United States? In a conference. When there is a disagreement between the House and Senate, we go to conference. That's the regular order of which Speaker Boehner speaks.
We passed a budget over 120 days ago in the Senate and House, no conference. A refusal to go to conference. An effort to go to conference by Senator Reid in the Senate. We can't, of course, initiate that here, but they've refused to do so. They passed the farm bill and [Congressman] Pete Sessions, the Chairman of the Rules Committee said we are passing this farm bill without food assistance for people who are hungry; we are passing without that so that we can go to conference. That was a couple of weeks ago and no effort to go to conference.
So, I think the President is willing, we are willing -- very frankly, we Democrats have indicated, both in the Senate and the House, we're willing to sit down to try to reach compromise which is how democracy works.
Q: Madam Leader, did the President promise to do more to sell the Affordable Care Act? And are you satisfied that you are going to get enough -- that he's going to make the case to the public strongly enough in the face of the Republican attacks, as you're going to see as we get closer to implementation?
Leader Pelosi. We're very confident with what the White House is doing and how we are working together to implement the Affordable Care Act, yes.
Q: The President made a plea, some sort of defense of Larry Summers, were you surprised by that? And did it give you the indication, either of you, Leader Pelosi, that he is leaning more towards nominating him?
Leader Pelosi. The President did not bring up the subject of Larry Summers, someone else did. The President is the President of the United States and he did make a -- I don't want to say a defense, he just spoke on what he thought about Larry Summers. But it wasn't really about Larry Summers, it was about how important this decision is and of the ramifications of who the Chairman of the Fed is are there for a long time to come, recognizing that there are differing views in our Caucus on the subject on how we go forward but understanding that whoever the President chooses will be received with great respect by our Caucus.