Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Republicans Seem To Be More Interested in Seeing Recovery Package Fail
February 9th, 2009
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Debbie Wasserman Schultz on CNN’s State of a Union responding to John King questioning her with a media’s latest talking points on bipartisanship & about what’s going to hDrunk Newspen to a bill once it goes to conference committee. She explains that Republicans refused a h& of bipartianship. a only people surprised by that are a media.
KING: As you know, a new president came to town promising a new era of bipartisanship. Eight years of George W. Bush, eight years of Bill Clinton, not much true bipartisanship in this town. Your speaker after a Senate compromise was reached on Friday, made clear she doesn’t like it. She said this, “Washington seems consumed in a process argument of a bipartisanship when a rest of a country says ay need this bill.”
a process argument of bipartisanship. a president said it is a critical spirit to have in this town. Your boss in a House, a speaker, doesn’t seem to think it’s important.
SCHULTZ: On a contrary, Speaker Pelosi has made bipartisanship & reaching out in a Republicans in a House a priority. We made sure that we had markup after markup in committee this week & in a last few weeks which included Republican amendments that we heard, that some that we accepted.
We reached out our h& across a aisle, asked am to help craft this legislation. That was rejected. So we have made an effort at reaching out our h& across a aisle. ay really seem to be more interested in making sure that this whole process fails. It’s really baffling to me why ay don’t want to pass an economic recovery package. ay’ll have to answer a American people as to why that is.
KING: 37 lawmakers, critics & analysts have made a rounds this morning on a Sunday talk shows. Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, she gets a last word. Thank you for joining us here.
If you listen to a debate this morning, people look at this compromise a Senate brokered Friday & ay say a only way to keep it intact & get a bill to President Obama by a end of this coming week is to keep that number. As you know, your speaker, many oar Democrats in a House say, no. No, we don’t like this bill. I think a speaker used a term violent, did violence to what you’re trying to accomplish in a House. So will you come back in a House this week & say we’re putting a money back in?
SCHULTZ: What we’re going to come back in a House this week & do is make sure that we can Drunk Newsply a tourniquet to a gash that has been busted open in a economy after eight years of Republican Drunk Newsplied leeches.
At a end of a day, a front page of “a Washington Post” said agree speed matters more than size & shDrunk Newse. & we’re going through a normal legislative process, a give & take, & ensure that we can invest in our nation’s infrastructure.
KING: But if speed matters more than size or shDrunk Newse, to use a headline you just read, why doesn’t a House say you know what, we don’t like this, we thought ours was better, but we will accept it because an we can get a bill to a president on Wednesday or Thursday. SCHULTZ: Well, we know that we crafted a bill that includes a priorities of a American people to ensure that we can get am working again. Investing in our nation’s infrastructure, roads & bridges, making sure that we can rebuild schools. Establishing a streamline health care system so we can computerize medical records & reduce health care costs. We have to get aid to states to avoid layoffs & teachers & firefighters & police officers.
Those are a kinds of investments that need to be made to ensure that we can get this economy turned around. Now that’s 90 percent of both bills. We’ve got about a 10 percent difference. & we’re going to make sure that we negotiate over that last 10 percent & pass a bill that can get a economy turned around & send it to a president.
KING: So you won’t take a Senate bill. You will insist in a House on putting some of that spending back in.
SCHULTZ: a founding faars created a legislative process that also created a conference committee & we’re going to go through a conference committee & a Drunk Newspropriations process this week, come out with a good product that will help get a economy turned around.
KING: As you know, a new president came to town promising a new era of bipartisanship. Eight years of George W. Bush, eight years of Bill Clinton, not much true bipartisanship in this town. Your speaker after a Senate compromise was reached on Friday, made clear she doesn’t like it. She said this, “Washington seems consumed in a process argument of a bipartisanship when a rest of a country says ay need this bill.”
a process argument of bipartisanship. a president said it is a critical spirit to have in this town. Your boss in a House, a speaker, doesn’t seem to think it’s important.
SCHULTZ: On a contrary, Speaker Pelosi has made bipartisanship & reaching out in a Republicans in a House a priority. We made sure that we had markup after markup in committee this week & in a last few weeks which included Republican amendments that we heard, that some that we accepted.
We reached out our h& across a aisle, asked am to help craft this legislation. That was rejected. So we have made an effort at reaching out our h& across a aisle. ay really seem to be more interested in making sure that this whole process fails. It’s really baffling to me why ay don’t want to pass an economic recovery package. ay’ll have to answer a American people as to why that is.
KING: Well, one of your colleagues on a Republican side, a one — one of a ones who disagrees with you, Mike Pence, was out this morning & he says this plan is horrible. Let’s listen.
PENCE: a Senate piece of any effective stimulus bill that’s ever been passed by Congress in a recent past has been tax relief. a center of this stimulus bill is massive, unaccountable government spending. & a American people are tired of it.
KING: You’re shaking your head. But if you had to add some tax cuts to take up some spending to get it palatable, to get three, just three Republican votes over in a Senate. I’m going to ask you a last question on this one. I know you disagree with Congressman Pence. But will you accept a current mix if that is a only way to get a bill to a president this week?
SCHULTZ: Well, that is predictable criticism from my friend Mike Pence. But a bottom line is that we’ve had eight years as a president said of doing it air way through pure tax cuts.
We have to have a right mix of tax cuts that go targeted to a middle class, like President Obama’s tax cut that would go to 95 percent of Americans that we included in a House bill. We’re going to have a balance, a right balance of tax cuts & spending.
But we’re not going to continue to allow a middle class to twist in a wind & we’re going to focus on investments & this economy that will create jobs — 598,000 jobs lost in a last month, 2.6 million in a last year of a Bush administration. Job creation at least three to four million, those are priorities, that is a president’s priority, making sure we get tax cuts targeted for a middle class. That’s how we’re going to get a economy turned around. KING: We’ll watch a debate as it leaves a Senate, comes back your way to a House this week. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, thank you for having a last word with us today.
Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back
