Pelosi: 'Republicans Are Engaged in Abuse of Power and the American People are Paying the Price'
4/13/2005 1:54:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Brendan Daly or Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616, both of the Office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Web:
http://democraticleader.house.gov WASHINGTON, April 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held a news conference this morning with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to discuss the Republican's abuse of power and its effect on the American people. Below are Pelosi's remarks:
"Ten years ago, the Republicans, in their Contract with America, claimed that they had to restore the trust between the American people and their representatives in government. Here we are today with the radical right-wing Republican majority that is destroying that trust, and doesn't want to play by the rules. In fact, this Republican majority wants to be above the law.
"They want to be above the law when it comes to respecting minority rights, which are part of the law of our land, and witness what they are doing now in the Senate to try to stifle debate by eliminating the right of the filibuster.
"This happens on a regular basis in the House of Representatives. It is well documented by our Rules Committee Ranking Member, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, and I refer you to her document on how Democrats have not been allowed to bring resolutions, amendments, and substitutes to the floor, where the marketplace of ideas that our Founding Fathers intended is greatly muzzled by the Republicans who think they are above the law of the land.
"We also have a situation where they do not want to uphold an ethical standard and that has a direct impact on the lives of the American people. Look at the impact of the energy lobbyists writing the energy bill. The lack of an energy policy is producing higher prices at the pump. Mr. Dingell, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, has a report that shows that the energy bill that the energy lobbyists want to write, which comes before us next week, makes prices higher at the pump; 70 percent of the American people have already said that the price at the pump is having an impact in their lives.
"Another example of where the low ethical standard impacts the lives of the American people is the Medicare prescription drug bill. This is a bill where the pharmaceutical industry insisted that there be a prohibition on the federal government negotiating for lower prices in the prescription drug bill, and it's in the bill. And now we see the wholesale prices of pharmaceutical drugs are rising at twice the rate of inflation. This has a tremendous impact on the budget of America's seniors, indeed anyone who depends on prescription drugs.
"Republicans are engaged in an abuse of power, and the American people are paying the price at the pump, and they are paying the price at the pharmacy. Don't take it from me. These are issues that the Ethics Committee has already spoken to in regard to the unethical performance of Republican Leader Tom DeLay in the House of Representatives.
"So what do the Republicans do? They gut the ethics process, they purge the Ethics Committee, casting aside the Chairman and two Members who they thought were not operating at their direction. They then gut the rules so that the Committee is effectively nonexistent and they want to make other changes that would further diminish the ethical standards in the House.
"In addition to this, the Majority Leader in the House is presenting thinly veiled threats against the federal judiciary. He may not care about the system of checks and balances, but the American people do.
"So we have an issue here that is as fundamental as our Constitution. It's about respecting the freedom of speech, minority rights, and not operating above the law as Republicans are.
"I agree with Leader Reid. We have to get this behind us so that we can move on with creating new jobs, expanding access to health care, broadening opportunities for education for all of our children, protecting our environment, having a strong national defense, and having accountability for all that we do, in our budget and in our ethical standards.
"Only then will be honoring the oath of office that all of us take to protect and defend the Constitution."