Pelosi: Congress Must Move Quickly on Stimulus Package

Read the Full Transcript

• JIM LEHRER:

  And to our Newsmaker interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I spoke with her today in her ceremonial office at the Capitol after President-elect Obama's economic speech.

  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?

  REP. NANCY PELOSI, D.-Calif., Speaker of the House: 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.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Now, define "now." How soon is "now"?

• REP. NANCY PELOSI:

  "Now" is to go through the — accept 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 for the Presidents' Day recess.

• JIM LEHRER:

  That is your deadline?

• REP. NANCY PELOSI:

  That's 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 will 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.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Do you support the Obama plan?

• REP. NANCY 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.

• JIM LEHRER:

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

• REP. NANCY PELOSI:

  I don't know what the figure will be.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Somewhere in that neighborhood?

• REP. NANCY PELOSI:

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

• JIM LEHRER:

  And do you — is it correct to say that it's roughly half expenditures or spending and half in tax cuts?

• REP. NANCY PELOSI:

  My hope would have been that it would — I was working on a $600 billion figure, $400 billion in investments, $200 billion in tax cuts. As it gets bigger, I think that proportion is appropriate, as well.

• JIM LEHRER:

  But you have not gone through the details with President-elect Obama yet, right?

• REP. NANCY PELOSI:

  Well, what we have done is we know what our priorities are, because we've passed an 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 the 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 we choose the particular initiatives, functions of government that can create jobs immediately, addressing those priorities.

• JIM LEHRER:

  What about things like unemployment benefits? Is that going to be part of it?

• REP. NANCY 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 with the administration 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.