Weekly House Democrats Press Conference 09.30.20 | COVID-19 Relief

Good morning everyone. We just concluded a 90-minute caucus call where we discussed our continuing efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic and to meet the moment that we are in right now. Despite the fact that the president doesn't seem to be interested in acknowledging that we continue to have a real problem in America with respect to COVID-19 and the continuing pain and suffering and death that we have experienced, House Democrats remain focused on finding common ground and reaching an agreement that meets the needs of the American people. It's extraordinary that House Democrats acted on May 15th, passed the HEROES Act, and we have seen nothing but crickets day after day, week after week, month after month in terms of a meaningful counter proposal to deal with the public health crisis and the economic crisis. That said, we remain committed to reaching an agreement and are prepared to address the pandemic in a comprehensive fashion but do so in a way that results in getting things done for the American people, hopefully by the conclusion of this week. Speaker Pelosi continues to talk to Secretary Mnuchin as part of this effort to arrive at an agreement and it's my expectation that she will have another discussion with the Secretary today and will be prepared to move forward thereafter. Last night we witnessed a debacle as it relates to our democracy. Donald Trump continues to take a blowtorch to our democracy. Our democracy is on life support. Only we the people at this point can turn it around. Vice Chair Catherine Clark. Thank you so much, Hakeem. What we saw last night is underscoring what we already knew. The president is going to continue to stand back as the American people suffer, as he stands by white supremacists and those who threaten our very democracy. But here in the Democratic House caucus, we are renewing our commitment to the American people. The bill released earlier this week is a $2.2 trillion investment in our nation's health, safety, and future. And contrary to what the president would have you believe, it is tightly packed, indoor, unsafe rallies. This pandemic is not over. We make up only 4% of the world's population, but 25% of all COVID-19 cases. So we've updated our bill. It is comprehensive, it is science-based, and it is a solution to help Americans reopen and recover. We are supporting testing, tracing, and treatment, investing directly in our state and local government and in our schools, funding food and housing assistance, providing additional direct payments to Americans, supporting restaurants and small businesses, protecting our frontline workers, and making a critical $57 billion investment in child care. Because we know that without child care, there is no rebuilding our economy. This is an unprecedented investment to match the historic challenge. If we do not provide solutions, this tragedy will continue along the path that it has. And what has changed since the original HEROES Act is the devastating number of preventable deaths will only continue to grow. What else has changed? We are now aware to the extent that this administration has hid, lied, and deceived American families about this pandemic in order to maintain its power. We see the deceit of this administration, and we are going to answer it by providing American people with the real relief that they need. The caucus is certainly behind a $2.2 trillion bill. Specific numbers can be addressed by Whip Jim Clyburn, but certainly based on the call, based on the conversations that I have had, we understand that it's important to proceed in a way that results in both meaningful relief for the American people and provides us a pathway to getting something done with people who do not share our values. The reality is we have a president and a Senate Republican majority preoccupied and primarily concerned with jamming a right-wing judge down the throats of the American people and continuing to stand up for the wealthy, well-off, and well-connected as part of their effort to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. That's all we've seen over the last three and a half years. But we are in a pandemic, and despite the fact that the president articulated not a single plan yesterday, while simultaneously taking credit for bringing football back, but not a single plan as it relates to addressing this pandemic, House Democrats are united around the legislation that could be on the floor as early as this afternoon and will remain united until we get something done on behalf of the American people. With respect to the airline discussion, again, Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin will have a conversation today. We address the dynamics connected to the airline industry in our legislation. I don't think anything that Secretary Mnuchin has said outside of that context will necessarily impact how we proceed at this moment. Nothing is agreed upon until everything is agreed upon. That's standard negotiating procedure, and I don't see why that would change. Well, we stand behind robust support for state and local stabilization, because we want to make sure that the most vulnerable communities who have already disproportionately suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic don't experience devastating budget cuts that will impact public health, public safety, public education, public housing, public transportation, and the provision of the public good. We support the extension of the Unemployment Insurance Emergency Benefit of $600 per week, and that is in our bill. We support providing an additional round of direct stimulus payments to the American people, which is in our bill. And of course, we support providing assistance to renters and homeowners who are struggling with paying their bills and at risk of being pushed out unless we intervene. Now, we've already come down approximately $1.2 trillion, and that is where we've drawn a line in the sand, as outlined in our legislation. We'll see what the discussion is like between Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin, but we've shown flexibility. We need to see the White House and Senate Republicans show some flexibility as well. At this point, I think we're just trying to get to Thursday, and I think the American people are trying to get to Thursday and then November 3rd, and then we'll see what happens on January 20th of next year. Certainly, it's my hope that we can end our long national nightmare, but that's in the hands of the American people at this point, and we continue to encourage everyone to vote like your life depends on it because your quality of life depends on it. With respect to the Supreme Court acting in a way that is adverse to the Affordable Care Act, I think it's premature to make any decisions about what may happen because even if the oral argument occurs the second week of November with a full complement of justices, that's just the oral argument. Traditionally, with respect to some of the Supreme Court's most controversial decisions, that will occur toward the end of the Supreme Court session, which will be in June of 2021. That is an eternity in politics and in life, but we are going to continue to make clear to the American people that your healthcare is at stake. The reason why Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are trying to jam this extreme judge down the throats of the American people is because they want to take away our healthcare, period, full stop. They have no regard for the fact that if the Affordable Care Act is struck down, more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions will lose their protection. They have no regard for the fact that if the more than 100 million Americans will lose the ability to have preventative care in the midst of a deadly pandemic. They have no regard for the fact that if the Affordable Care Act will be struck down, that Medicaid expansion will be in jeopardy and that will impact children and seniors, the latter category being the most vulnerable in the midst of COVID-19. Because this is what they are all about. They continue to show us this and we're going to make sure that those stakes are well understood by the American people. Katherine. Whatever happens in the priority of legislation as we move into the next session, healthcare is going to be at the top of it. Because we understand that without healthy people, we are never going to get back to a healthy economy. Once again, the president last night was unable to tell us what his vision is. What we do know are these short-term junk plans that he has proposed as a substitute for the ACA and robust coverage. We know that this is so fundamental to people's lives that they are able to get at any time, but especially in the middle of a pandemic, the help that they need. That we should never have a country where people fear the unpaid medical bills mounting more than the diagnosis that they got. This is the president's vision for our country. He has health insurance and that's the discussion ends for him. He's able to afford healthcare for himself. That is all he cares about. We will continue to meet the needs of the American people. Healthcare is at the very center of it. It is at the center of why there is a push to get a nominee through the Senate and onto the Supreme Court in time for the November 10th oral argument on the ACA. We will match whatever they do because it has to be about the American people. They are the ones that lost in the debate last night. They are the ones who have lost in this administration and with those here in Congress who are complicit with the president. The majority leader has indicated that it's his expectation to move forward with a vote on the legislation at some point today, though that could change. But that is our current expectation. The Rules Committee met this morning. We have same-day authority to proceed. I think it's the right thing to do in the context of making it clear that in the midst of a deadly pandemic, we have to act, act decisively and comprehensively. The same period of time our bill is in the public domain. It's my understanding that Secretary Mnuchin has been reviewing it over the last day or two and he'll communicate his perspective directly to Speaker Pelosi. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive as it relates to arriving at an agreement, which is our intention, and moving forward by setting forth our vision to the American people as to what we think is the right thing to do legislatively at this moment. That's my perspective. Well, I mean, I think the notion that Donald Trump is going to tell the left how they should interpret, you know, whether they should support Joe Biden is nonsensical. And the leaders, you know, of the progressive wing of our party, certainly in the context of the presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, continue to make clear that they stand firmly behind Joe Biden's candidacy and are encouraging everyone to deal with this election as the existential threat to our democracy that this election represents. As a member of the progressive caucus, I can tell you that those comments reflect everything else that this president says to us. They're not rooted in reality. They're not based in fact. And after that performance that underscored so publicly what we already know about this president, this is about him. It is about his quest to retain power. And it is not about the American people. It is not about how we rebuild, how we address this pandemic, and not only go back to normal, but make sure that when we rebuild, it is a more inclusive economy. This is where we are in history as this country. We are in a time of turmoil, but also of racial reckoning, and making sure that we are taking those ideals we talk about, about equality and justice and liberty for all, and make them apply. And that's really what is at the heart of our negotiations around pandemic relief. Are you going to be leaders, members of Congress, members of this administration, and help the American people? Or are you going to continue on this dystopian quest for power that you are on? And the president answered very clearly, the American people do not factor in to his presidency. And we are going to respond as clearly as we can this week that their health and well-being is at the forefront and focus of our work here in Congress. With respect to the aspect of your question that dealt with the problem solvers, if you look at the problem solvers proposal, at the high end, it's approximately $2 trillion. And so I think that to the extent Secretary Mnuchin has indicated that he will use the problem solver proposal as a basis for any counter offer, actually brings us much closer to an agreement than we've ever been. Remember Mitch McConnell, who's been negotiating against himself, started at a trillion dollars in late July, and then moved to about a half a trillion dollars in early September. The fact that Secretary Mnuchin has indicated that he'll use the problem solver proposal as basis for his response to Speaker Pelosi, I think is a positive development in the context of where we had been in terms of Mitch McConnell's view of the world. Last question. Well, we don't have an escalator clause in our proposal. There has been some discussion of that over the last several months, but we've settled on proceeding in a different fashion. What is clear is that we are going to have to continue to act decisively to crush the COVID-19 pandemic and the coronavirus. We're going to try and arrive at a meaningful agreement in the next few days. That is our commitment as it has been over the last several months. But at the same token, this has been an extraordinary event. More than 200,000 Americans have died. More than 7 million have been infected by the coronavirus. Over 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed. Tens of millions of Americans remain unemployed. People are hungry throughout this country. It's an extraordinary event, a once-in-a-century pandemic, and it's going to require a continued, extraordinary congressional response. One last question. It's my expectation that we're going to continue to focus on the kitchen table pocketbook issues that are important to the American people, primarily addressing the healthcare crisis that we confront and the economic crisis that we confront. I will say, and then I'll yield to Catherine to conclude us, that the president and his tax return debacle continues to make clear that he doesn't care about the American people. He simply cares about himself. He's told more than 20,000 lies during his time in office, and of course he added to that exponentially last night almost every single time he opened his mouth, but perhaps the biggest lie and the most consequential one that he's told is that he cares about everyday Americans. He does not, and that is what this tax return situation indicates. It's always been all about himself, and even when he talked about his taxes last night, he made reference to the GOP tax scam and exposed it for what it was. It was really just something to help the wealthy, well-off, and well-connected, and included provisions that he personally benefited from, which he acknowledged last night. And of course we know that 83% of the benefits went to the wealthy, as 1% in America, which the president is probably not part of, though he projects the lie he is. The taxes once again reveal, as the chairman said, that this president just simply doesn't care. $750, when you look at what teachers and police officers and firefighters and waitresses, flight attendants, would they pay in their taxes compared to this president? He keeps showing us who he is, and we have to believe him. And that's why we're going to do everything in our power to meet the needs of the American people and to make sure that come November 4th, this president can no longer be the threat to our democracy and to the quality of life for Americans that he has presented for the last four years. We saw a malignant clown show last night. When you see it, believe it. Thank you.