Pelosi: Stimulus by Presidents' Day

by Mark Silva

How much pressure will there be on Congress to enact an economic stimulus plan swiftly? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says there will be no congressional recess for the Presidents' Day holiday if they haven't finished work by then.

So, basically one month to enact a $775-billion booster-shot for the American economy, a price-tag which President-elect Barack Obama acknowledges may well grow once Congress gets its hands on the recovery plan he is proposing.

This is what Pelosi (D-Calif) said in an interview with PBS' Jim Lehrer aired this evening on The Newshour.

The plan is "to go through the... president-elect's proposal, have Congress work its will on it, and have it signed, sealed, and delivered for the American people before we leave the Presidents' Day recess,'' Pelosi said.

"That is your deadline?'' Lehrer asked.

"That is my deadline,'' the speaker said, "and if we do not have agreement and a bill by then, we won't have a recess. We cannot leave here without an economic recovery package for the American people, because, as the President-elect has said, the consequences are very severe. We lose 500,000 jobs a month -- a month, so this is long overdue. We begged President Bush to take action. The recession has only deepened. We must act, and we must act now.'

See the full transcript of the interview, courtesy of PBS

MR. LEHRER: Madam Speaker, welcome. Do you agree with President-elect Obama that economic catastrophe of irreversible proportions is coming if an economic stimulus package is not passed soon?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I agree that we are in a deep economic recession, and that it is only getting worse. We've asked for a recovery package for over a year now, with some of the elements that President-elect Obama is proposing, and I do agree that we must act, and we must act now.

MR. LEHRER: Now what -- define now? How soon is now?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Now is to go through the accept the President's -- President elect's proposal, have Congress work its will on it, and have it signed, sealed, and delivered for the American people before we leave the Presidents' Day recess.

MR. LEHRER: That is your deadline?

SPEAKER PELOSI: That is my deadline, and if we do not have agreement and a bill by then, we won't have a recess. We cannot leave here without an economic recovery package for the American people, because, as the President-elect has said, the consequences are very severe. We lose 500,000 jobs a month -- a month, so this is long overdue. We begged President Bush to take action. The recession has only deepened. We must act, and we must act now.

MR. LEHRER: Do you support the Obama plan?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Such as I understand it. We're becoming -- made more aware of the size and some of the particulars of it. But I remind you that we campaigned on many of these issues, have been for years, and now we have a President-elect who is taking that message to the American people, and about 80 percent of the American people support the Obama recovery agenda, and so do we.

MR. LEHRER: Well, let's what go through what is known or what you know at least. Is it about $800 billion; is that?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I don't know what the figure will be.

MR. LEHRER: Mm-hmm. Is it somewhere in the neighborhood?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I haven't gotten up that high yet, but that's what I'm hearing.

MR. LEHRER: Do you -- is it correct to say that it's roughly half expenditures, or spending, and half in tax cuts?

SPEAKER PELOSI: My hope would have been that it had been -- well, I was working with $600 billion figure; $400 billion in investments, $200 billion in tax cuts. As it gets bigger, I think that proportion is appropriate as well.

MR. LEHRER: But you have not gone through the details with President-elect Obama yet; right?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, what we have done is we know what our priorities are, because we've passed the economic recovery package over and over again in the House. It's about investing in a green infrastructure in America. It's about investing in innovation to keep America number one and competitive in the world. It's about having investments in education and health of our children, and it's about using science, technology, and innovation to reverse global warming and making us energy independent.

Those are some of the priorities.

What we have been working together to do is to see how -- what -- how we choose the particular initiatives, functions of government, that can create jobs immediately, addressing those priorities.

MR. LEHRER: What about things like unemployment benefits? Is that going to be a priority?

SPEAKER PELOSI: That would have to be in there. There's a countercyclical, a piece that is associated with the fact that we are in recession, so food stamps, aid to the states in terms of Medicaid and unemployment insurance, and a modernization of the unemployment insurance, to help would-be ministration of it, as well as extending the benefit.

These are not only important to the people that are affected by them, hard-working Americans who have lost their jobs, they are a stimulus to the economy. They help grow the economy. That money will be spent immediately, inject demand into the economy, grow jobs.

MR. LEHRER: Under the Obama plan, as he laid out today, for instance, on the tax cut area, he said he would give a $1,000 tax cut to every working family. Do you support that?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I support that, and I'd like to go further in terms of tax credits for children.

MR. LEHRER: What about $3,000 for each small business?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, you know, rather than go over the particulars --

MR. LEHRER: Sure.

SPEAKER PELOSI: -- of the plan, may I just say that what we're -- you know, a broader sense, from the standpoint of our investments as well as in the tax cuts and credits, what we want to do is to create 3 million jobs. We want to -- and we want to give a middle-income tax cut. Probably 95 percent at least of the American people will receive tax relief in the proposal that we are putting forth. It's about helping middle-class America.

MR. LEHRER: Now a couple of

SPEAKER PELOSI: Now a couple of leading Democratic -- Democrats in the Senate raised questions about the Obama plan today and said that -- Senator Conrad and Senator Kerry said, wait a minute. You're not going to really create more jobs by doing tax credits, tax breaks or tax credits. The money should go directly or more directly just expenditures. Do you disagree with that in substance?

SPEAKER PELOSI: But there is no question, and on Wednesday, yesterday, we had a forum of a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, at which Martin Feldstein, who was an advisor, economic adviser to President Reagan; Mark Zandy, who was the economic advisor to John McCain; Robert Reich -- you see the range -- came in and, by and large, we were told that, especially by Mark Zandy, that the investments will create more jobs than the tax cuts.

But we need -- but I contend that we need both. The tax cuts again will be tax relief for middle-income Americans, giving them more discretionary money, injecting demand into the economy, creating jobs.

MR. LEHRER: In a general way, the way you see this. You get the Obama plan. Is it an Obama plan that you then accept or do you then take and then play with, now you meaning the Congress of the United States?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I don't know if I would say play with, but I will say that any -- we welcome the initiative of the President of the United States for a very necessary economic coverage initiative. Congress will work its will on it. I don't think the final product will be much different, because this is the President who has to sign the bill, after all.

So I'm optimistic that in a couple of weeks, we'll have mark ups of the bill in the House and in the Senate. If there's differences, we'll go to conference, and we will have the bill signed into law before the President's Week recess.

And if we don't, we won't have a recess until we finish the bill.

MR. LEHRER: The conventional wisdom is that because of the makeup of the new Congress, both in the House and the Senate, there are enough Democratic votes to pass whatever President -- and then it would be President Obama wants.

The issue is do you and other Democratic leaders want Republicans to support this as well? Do you want a bipartisan bill in a really significant way?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Yes, we do. I think that one of the hallmarks of this presidency -- and I welcome it -- is a spirit of bipartisanship and civility and respecting every voice and every view; and that the initiative will have more legitimacy the more support it has in the Congress, and it can be sustained.

So I am -- we're hoping that we can come to terms on both pieces of it, the investment side and the tax side. And I'm in communication with my Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, about how we would proceed to do that.

When we did the rebate package last year, we got in a room until it was done.

MR. LEHRER: Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER PELOSI: This year -- but this year, this is a much bigger package. It has many more priorities in it. The committees, at least Appropriations and Finance, will have to have their markups. The other committees of jurisdiction have, by and large, had their hearings over time. They may want to have more.

So as Congress works its will, the public and the members of Congress will be much more aware of what is in the package. And I think they will be very pleased, because it is -- its purpose, of course, is job creation -- grow the economy.

So it is immediate for job creation, but it's about economic stabilization as well.

MR. LEHRER: So it doesn't matter to you whether it's known as the Obama plan, the Democratic plan, or whatever label gets on it doesn't matter to you?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I think it is the Obama plan.

MR. LEHRER: It is the Obama plan?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I think it is the Obama plan, and I believe that whatever concessions we have to make in terms of some priorities or on the tax side will be worth it to have a unity of support for it. That's what our hope is. But one thing is for sure: we must have a bill signed into law by the middle of February. Our economy requires it. The American people need it desperately, and one word I would use to say -- to describe all of this is confidence. They have to have confidence that they can get results for this new administration in Washington, D.C.; they have have confidence that they can get a job and that things will be done differently, and we'll have prosperity for the many that have just, you know.

MR. LEHRER: President-elect Obama spoke today about -- to get all this done, it's going to require more than just a really good plan and a lot of this and that. It's going to require a whole new spirit.

SPEAKER PELOSI: That's right.

MR. LEHRER: That's his term -- in Washington and in Congress as well as everywhere else.

What do you think he means by that? Well, I welcome everything that he is saying, because this is what many of us came here to do. The -- again, the spirit of bipartisanship and civility. But in addition to that, a whole new way of accountability. How is this money spent? What are the results we're getting for it? Transparency, so that people know from the start clearly what is in this bill. And, of course, the Internet helps us convey that in real time to the American people; and also about the spirit of working together. I said bipartisanship, but also Democrats among Democrats, Congress with the White House to get results, because what we do has to be relevant to meeting the needs of the American people.

There's great concern in our country about what is happening to our economy, and we must address it and act now.

MR. LEHRER: Are you confident that the government of the United States is even capable of spending this kind of money that would be in a stimulus package in an efficient, non-wasteful way?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Yes, I am. And that's really what we're doing now is -- we know what the priorities are. We want to see what we call the absorptive capacity, what can be absorbed by each initiative that we are taking so that the money can be invested, and we can create jobs immediately, and that we account to the American people for the outcomes there.

And if there's any lack of confidence that we can do that, we have to change that. But that's what this new change in Washington is all about. That's what we look forward to working in a bipartisan way with the Obama administration. And we'll have some other bills. We'll have accountability in this package written in, but we will have -- and MR. John Tanner's -- a member from Tennessee has a proposal about Inspector General reports on a regular basis to the Congress on tracking the money and how it is spent. Fiscal soundness is essential to what we do.

That's why when you ask about the number, we want to do enough so that it makes an impact on the economy, but be careful not to weight it down too heavily to grow the deficit without the commensurate dynamic of, again, reversing the economic recession that we are in.

So fiscal discipline will be part of everything that we do. And fiscal discipline requires us not only to rein in the spending, but to account for it and to make sure we're getting the results the American people, the taxpayer, has paid for.

MR. LEHRER: On the relationships issue, Senator Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, said the other day, he said this week that Barack Obama -- I don't work for Barack Obama. I work with Barack Obama, but not for Barack Obama.

How would you describe your relationship?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I'd -- you know, we are an independent branch of government. I am the Speaker of the House, and MR. Reid is the leader in the Senate, the Democratic leader in the Senate. Barack Obama is the President of the United States.

And we all respect each other's role. And we also respect the voice of the American people. They elected many more people to Congress. We have stronger majorities here. They elected Barack Obama to make change in Washington, D.C., and we must respect that.

And I look forward to continuing my work with the President-elect and especially when he becomes President to bring that change, again, in a bipartisan way with transparency, openness, accountability, and fiscal discipline.

MR. LEHRER: Do you think it's fair to say -- would you be comfortable being judged as the Speaker of the House in terms of your success based on how much of the Obama agenda gets enacted by the House?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I'd be very comfortable with that, because I have high regard for the Obama agenda, and it is one that, over the years, we have been fighting for in terms of investments in the future, investments in our children and their future, and making the future better; and then the spirit of Obama partisanship and civility and openness and fiscal discipline. Yes, I would be pleased to associate my speakership with that and how we can work together to get the job done for the American people.

MR. LEHRER: Finally, there's 10 days to go. How does the George W. Bush presidency look to you?

SPEAKER PELOSI: You know, Jim, I find this almost impossible to believe, but I am Speaker of the House because a number of years ago -- was it three -- Harry Reid and I challenged President Bush on his privatization of Social Security. We took our message to the American people. We had 1000 town hall meetings across America to fight him so we could protect Social Security and fight the privatization.

I recently read and heard on Jay Leno last night that President Bush, when asked what his proudest achievement was as president was his attempt to privatize Social Security. Well, frankly, that was the beginning of the end for the Republicans in Congress and led to the election of Brock Obama. Not a good idea first and foremost for Social Security for our seniors and those who depend on Social Security.

And it was just curious to me that of all things that the President would have said something that I think was bad policy, but also that he did not succeed with.

So I, you know, have great respect personally for President Bush. I certainly respect the office of president. The President's legacy is of his own making, and I wish him well as he goes forward.

There is no -- absolutely no question that today when the House of Representatives, when we had the vote of the Electoral College was taken there was one of the proudest political days of my life. I'm overjoyed at the election of Barack Obama. I look forward to working with him. No offense to President Bush.

MR. LEHRER: Okay. And no characterization of his presidency?

SPEAKER PELOSI: I think it's a presidency of missed opportunities. He took us to a war without end. I think the Bush presidency did great harm to America, with this war, with the enormous budget deficits, the challenges to the Constitution of the United States, the financial crisis that we are in. It is -- maybe that's why that was all the President could point to, his attempt to privatize Social Security.

But in this downturn in the financial -- the stock market, thank God, we won that fight.

MR. LEHRER: Madam Speaker, thank you.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you very much, Jim.