Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference Today – March 23
Democratic Leader
Leader Pelosi. Good morning, everyone. I was hoping that my grandson Thomas and his brother Paul could shadow me into this room today as they are shadowing me on the Hill. We have many young women from
What a day for them to come because today
This historic law made immense progress in expanding coverage and lowering costs for hard-working American families. Improving quality, the ACA instituted landmark protections for every American: no annual lifetime limits; no discriminating on a preexisting condition; children allowed to stay on their parent's policy until 26 years old; no charging women more for health coverage, being a woman is no longer a preexisting medical condition; and it guaranteed coverage for essential health care, including maternity care, mental health, and addiction rehab.
More than 20 million people, previously uninsured Americans, now have health coverage. The percentage of uninsured Americans is at its lowest ever, a very important point. Since enactment of the ACA, health care costs have been increasing at the lowest rate in the 50 years that this measure has been taken. So it has lowered costs, improved quality, and expanded coverage.
Today, the
Higher cost. TrumpCare forces families to pay higher premiums and deductibles, increasing out‑of‑pocket cost. Higher premiums. That's a message of the
It steals from
It also affects people with disabilities or addiction, et cetera, especially meeting the needs of America's children who need that assistance.
As bad as TrumpCare was,
But so eager were they to, I don't know, to be mean‑spirited, to say we are going to bring up this bill on the same day as the seventh anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, rookie's error,
And how are they moving to get ready? Here's how they're moving. Now we hear
You've probably seen - I don't have it here - but essential health benefits that were something we're very proud of in the Affordable Care Act, I'll just say that the essential health benefits means
Worsening the addiction epidemic and making it harder to access mental health care, making it more expensive to be sick in America, well, that's their goal, to Make America Sick Again. Speaker Ryan has called this bill an act of mercy. An act of mercy. There is no mercy here. TrumpCare is a moral monstrosity that will devastate seniors and hard-working Americans.
I talked about what they had been talking about in the essential health benefits. Now, in order to get votes on the far, far right, they are looking at other items, including at Title I in the Affordable Care Act. You probably have this list. These are some of the things we are very proud of that are in the Affordable Care Act that they are now looking at. This will all hurt America's working families.
And it's a remarkable thing. It's clear that this is not a health care bill. This is a tax bill. This is once again
It's amazing. More than
So in any case, I've told the
As you know, yesterday, in another diversionary tactic, the Deflector-in-Chief created some kind of a scenario where he either duped or the Chairman of the committee was a willing stooge, he committed a stunt with the
The
The necessity of an independent investigation is increasingly being recognized. I think that when Chairman Nunes acted the way he did, outside the circle of respect for his committee and his Members and his Ranking Member, outside the circle of just, again, respect for the responsibility that he has as chairman of the Intelligence Committee by being a stooge for the President of
Chairman Nunes is deeply compromised and he cannot possibly lead an honest investigation. As I said,
And it's very serious because this has an impact on our national security. When a President‑elect comes into office and flirts with the idea of lifting sanctions on
And now - I'm not going to go into it because it's all unfolding - but we see further connections between his campaign chairman and money connections to
As you probably now,
So it's a stunning set of facts that need to be reviewed for our national security, for the security of our nation, for the security of our democracy, and this needs to go outside.
With that, I'd be pleased to take any questions you may have.
Yes, sir?
Q: Shortly after Director Comey announced the FBI was effectively reopening the investigation into
Leader Pelosi. Well, I do believe that what the Director did during the campaign was inappropriate, by his own words. In the first week of the October, Director Comey said that he would not sign the consensus document that said the Russians were interfering in our election. The other leaders in the intelligence community signed off on that. He said it's too close to the election. It was the first week in October.
Two weeks later, for some reason, but heralded
I think in this role now he's more in his wheelhouse as the Director of the FBI conducting an investigation. I don't know what he was doing on the political side. I thought that was very wrong what he did. I have respect for him for his other work, as I said then and I've repeatedly said, because I've observed him when he was in the
I've been in many investigative situations in the
Q: If I may follow up real quick. In both cases you had the Director come out and confirm an investigation that many say the Director should not confirm or deny the existence of an ongoing investigation, so -
Leader Pelosi. Who is that? Who says that? You said many say?
Q: Someone suggested.
Leader Pelosi. Oh, someone suggested.
Q: What is different from this case as opposed to -
Leader Pelosi. Well, good question, because I asked him, because it's been months since they've been doing the investigation and he hasn't said anything so far. And I said to him: Why did you say you were doing an investigation of
But I have posed probably the question: Why would the Director say publicly that he was investigating
What his response to me was that there are at least two standards. I said: What is your criteria? One is that if you are to announce an investigation, you might give warning to the target of your investigation. So we're just talking now generally, all investigations. That would be one reason not to announce it. But one reason to announce it would be if it is of significant national interest. I think this is of significant national interest.
Yes, sir?
Q:
Leader Pelosi. Well, there has never been a perfect bill that has passed
Part of the lack of success in certain markets where there is a big high risk pool, and that's harder for insurance companies to succeed there, was that the money was there to mitigate for that, the
Second point is that we could have extended the reinsurance. We had reinsurance to begin with. We would have extended that. We can do that again.
Where there are some problems are in the individual market, which is about six percent of the marketplace. It's not a large percentage, but any number of people affected are important to us. And that's a place that we would like to work with the
And of course a place that we have always said, I said the rate of increase of health care cost is the lowest it's been. It's more like that then, now like this. One place that we can work together and the President says he supports it is to the issue of pharmaceutical drugs, the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. That contributes more to the rising cost of health care?
So we can address that by having the Secretary be able to negotiate for prices the way the
And this is the
So this is a free marketplace initiative. If you don't, as some people believe, that health care should not be a for‑profit industry, you go in another direction. But we didn't do that. We stayed with the mixture that was there.
Q: But you would characterize it as overwhelmingly successful?
Leader Pelosi. Overwhelmingly successful. And we have the stories across America. And that's why the
Yes, ma'am?
Q:
Leader Pelosi. Yeah.
Q: Can you read the tea leaves or give us your reading for them for the
Leader Pelosi. I wouldn't have the faintest idea. Because let me tell you why. I am a vote counter of my own votes. I don't ever pretend to know what goes on. I'd be the last person to ask what goes on in that caucus.
But I will tell you a big difference between
And we are not transactional. We only can convince people about the merit of the bill. If somebody says, "I have questions about how this affects my constituents in my region, like mine, which might be more rural, more urban, more this, more that," then we have to find the answers to that and maybe make some adjustments in the bill in recognition of how it is predictably implemented in a way that could be corrected in advance.
From what I can hear of the rookie President is that he's transactional, he's a negotiator. So what is he promising? What is he granting or withholding? That's not how we operate. It's not about what committee you're going to be on or what bridge you're going to build. It's about what bridge are you going to cross to do something great for the American people.
So if "he's negotiating" means "I'm negotiating," I'm very concerned about that.
Q: And just to clarify, you're saying
Leader Pelosi. No, Congressional. No, I wasn't making it about that.
Q: I mean, the Cornhusker Kickback was a part of the Affordable Care Act.
Leader Pelosi. And it came out of the bill. And it came out of the bill. It came out of the bill. Because we all said, if it's not - it came out of the bill. You remember that that came out of the bill.
Yes, sir?
Q: Thank you. I want to see if you can update us on the fiscal 2017 spending bills. We're about a month away from a potential government shutdown. Have there been any negotiations between
Leader Pelosi. Well, we have to have another CR before the end of the year. I defer to my appropriators, being forged in that. Two places I was forged here, Appropriations and Intelligence - sidebar on Ethics over here, but those two the most time spent. And appropriators can get through it.
Both of those committees had, by and large, been the least partisan committees in the
One question that I do have, and this isn't based on a fact, it's just based on an observation of not seeing something happen, is they may attempt to do one bill for '17, and that could have serious implications for a domestic agenda.
But we'll see. I mean, there's a mish mosh. Just for the rest of you who don't follow this, because last year we didn't do a full year's CR, we went to the end of April instead of the end of fiscal year,
At the same time we have to be writing a bill for 2018. At the same time the President has sent down a supplemental, which is kind of disruptive in terms of the balance of investment spending that are made.
And at the same time the
A budget is supposed to be a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a country should be reflected in how we allocate our resources. That is a budget that gives some
And on the domestic side is also Veterans, Homeland Security, Intelligence,
So that's why I had some generals in my office the other day arguing for recognizing what that soft power means to informing us to have connections. When we're cooperating with countries, whether it's
So this is not, while it may say we're spending more money on Defense, it is not necessarily making us stronger. It's another example of rash, reckless policy rather than smart, strong policy.
So I don't know. You'll have to ask them. I don't know if they know how they're going to proceed. But I would hope that they would adhere as closely to the regular order as possible. If they do, I think the Members, in a bipartisan way, can work out their differences or build consensus. If it's above their pay grade, then that's where the problem comes in.
Q: In 2009, you allowed a Boehner substitute with medical malpractice association health plans and interstate insurance sales as a substitute for the ACA when it came to the floor. Do you guys plan on having a Democratic substitute or alternative if an ACA repeal comes to the House floor in the next day or two?
Leader Pelosi. No. No.
Q: Why not?
Leader Pelosi. But I thank you for pointing out that fairness with which we always treated the
And the fact is, if this bill were to fail today, Rookie Day, I stand ready to negotiate with them on how we can go forward, incorporating some of their ideas, saving face for them in some areas, but doing what is right for the American people.
This is a bad day for them. It's bad if they win and it's bad if they lose because of what destruction they will wreak in the lives of the American people, and the American people know it.
Q: So you see no reason to put forward your own alternative?
Leader Pelosi. Well, we don't see any prospect that they would give us. Did you see, did you watch the Rules Committee yesterday?
Q: It was 10 hours, ma'am.
Leader Pelosi. I'm sorry?
Q: It was 10 hours.
Leader Pelosi. It was interesting. It was interesting. But it was not hopeful. It was not hopeful.
So they have a bill that is just getting worse as far as we can tell that they have to - again, you do not bring up your bill just to be spiteful to the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. You build your consensus in your party and in the
Q: You said that Chairman Nunes is now not an honest broker, he is unfit to lead a bipartisan investigation.
Leader Pelosi. Yes.
Q: Does that mean the
Leader Pelosi. No, I'm just talking about him. I'm just talking about him. The
He, himself, I don't know if that was a cry for help or let me out of here or whatever that was, but it was highly unusual, outside the accepted behavior of a chairman of an Intelligence - or any committee.
Thank you all very much.
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