Pelosi Remarks at Press Availability Following Meeting with President Obama

Press Conference

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid held a press availability following their meeting with President Obama today. Below are the Leader's remarks and the question and answer session:

"Good afternoon, everyone. We just had a very productive conversation with the President. We feel very prepared to proceed with conversations leading to negotiations on how we keep government open; to do so with lifting the sequestration, lifting the caps; to do so in a way that has equity dollar-for-dollar between investments in defense and investments in our domestic agenda; to do so in a timely fashion that produces an agreement that creates growth to create jobs, and to take our country forward as we meet the needs of the American people.

"I'm hopeful that we are all in agreement, Democrats and Republicans, that we should not have a government shutdown -- costly to the government, to the American people as it was during the government shutdown before. So, we are optimistic. We want to be cooperative. We want to negotiate in good faith to see that effectively done in a timely fashion. I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished Senate Leader."

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Q: Senator Reid, you said you do want a short-term CR? Is that what you just said?

Senator Reid. Yes, a short-term CR because if we're going to do something meaningful with spending, we have to give our appropriators and others -- our budget folks -- time to come up with an agreement. So, that's why we need…

Q: How much additional spending above the budget caps are you seeking?

Senator Reid. We're not negotiating that here. We're open to being reasonable as we hope they are, but we're not going to have the numbers here today.

Q: And what's the political incentive to get this done? The last time there was a government shutdown, Republicans can say: "Well, we won the Senate after the shutdown occurred." What do you make of that?

Senator Reid. Well, we all know that has nothing to do with their retaking the Senate. A lot of the poll numbers after we closed the government down for 17 days were stunningly good for us. However, we all acknowledged the roll out of the Obamacare matter didn't work out very well. It was very, very rocky. However, today, to show we did the right thing there, we have the lowest uninsured rate in the history of our country. It was the right thing to do for the country. There was a phase of it there that caused us some problems, but they know what happened last time. They know they got a gift. But we proceeded forward and did the right thing for American people. Obamacare is very, very good and that's an understatement.

Leader Pelosi. If I may just address that question as well. People ask me all the time around the country: "When the Republicans shut down government, why didn't you make the American people feel the pain?" Because what we did, being responsible and this President being responsible, mitigated for a good deal of the damage that would have been done left to its own devices in terms of a government shutdown. So that's why it's irresponsible to do, and the economy lost $25 billion and over 100,000 jobs were lost and just so much uncertainty in the economy and in people's lives. It was so very, very wrong. But in fact, President Obama and his leadership and his approach and working with us, we tried to mitigate for the harm and the impact that it had on people's individual lives. It was very irresponsible. They did it -- while we even agreed to their budget number, the only people that did not agree to the House Republican budget number were the House Republicans…

Senator Reid. Who came up with the number.

Leader Pelosi. They came up with the number.

But I also want to say that it's important for us to move, not hastily, but efficiently on this -- and to have not a very long CR, but one that enables us to have the time for the appropriators to write an omnibus bill or whatever form the funding will take because we have a good deal of unfinished business. We have to get around to doing a transportation bill -- very essential to our economy for us to have a transportation bill for many reasons that I could go into. Secondly, we have to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. We have to reauthorize the IMF, the International Monetary Fund. There's plenty of unfinished business that we have to get to. The sooner we can agree on a number -- under which we will write the appropriations bill -- the sooner we can get this job done and address some of the other issues that relate to job creation, relate to the strength of our country.

Q: Can you tell me what's different, Madam Speaker, this time versus the last time there was an actual shutdown? And what gives you confidence that this time things will be different?

I'm ever optimistic. I think that -- I would hope that -- most of the Republicans agree that a government shutdown is not a good idea for our country. We're talking about, again, the loss to the growth of our GDP; we're talking about jobs; we're talking about laying off a federal workforce -- at least 30 percent of which are veterans. Our veterans who served our country in the military now serve our country in public service in another way. It's just not a good idea. We're here to meet the needs of the American people, to make tough decisions, to compromise, to negotiate, and I'm ever optimistic that the Republicans know that it was very damaging to our country when they did this before. And hopefully, they won't do it again.

Senator Reid. One reason that Pelosi and Reid get along so well, she's very optimistic and I'm very pessimistic. Okay? And that way, I'm never disappointed. So, I'm confident that I won't be disappointed when we finish this. I think we're in pretty good shape. I would stay here longer, but I hate the sun. I'm leaving.

[Laughter]

Q: Leader Pelosi, one question on Speaker Boehner. You know a lot about being a Speaker. His speakership is under threat right now. He may face a move to vacate the chair. There's a lot of talk from conservative Republicans that his speakership might be at stake, unless he forces a defunding of Planned Parenthood. Are you prepared to work with John Boehner to save his speakership on a motion to vacate the chair, if that helps him keep the government open?

Leader Pelosi. Is he talking politics here, right in front of the White House? I don't have any comment on that, but I do say that I have to get back for votes. That's why I'm going to follow Harry's lead, and get out of the sun. Thank you all very much.

Q: Can you negotiate with the Speaker, given his weakness?

Leader Pelosi. Sure.

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