Whip Hoyer Discusses Proposal To Pay America's Bills, Reduce the Deficit

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed the proposal to pay America's bills and reduce the deficit today on CBS, Bloomberg, and MSNBC. See below for exceprts of the interviews and links to the videos.

Click here to watch Whip Hoyer on CBS's Early Show.
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Click here to watch Whip Hoyer on Bloomberg TV.
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Click here to watch Whip Hoyer on MSNBC's Daily Rundown.
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On CBS’s Early Show
"We're going to be meeting with our caucus today and we want to talk to them, find out what they believe. Again, all of them to a person believe that default is not an option, which is why this is such a tough decision. But we've missed an opportunity. This is not a balanced approach, revenues need to be on the table and we haven't done that."
On Bloomberg TV
"I think we missed a wonderful opportunity to make what almost every Democratic leaders wanted, and that was a big deal consistent with the Gang of Six and others recommended to get this on a long-term path. Debt default is not an option. So, we're confronted with an agreement that does some things we do not like, does some things that we think are ok. The Republicans are probably in the same place on that. I think the Republicans will have to offer a very substantial number of votes in the House of Representatives if they're going to get this thing passed."
"There is a lot of disappointment that this is not a balanced deal, that this does not have the revenue component asking the best off in America to help our country get out of this hole and too much expectation that programs affect the least well-off may be affected. There are protections in here for Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries. There is some protection for the most vulnerable, which I think the Democrats will appreciate. But the fact that this is not a balanced package is a missed opportunity."
On MSNBC's The Daily Rundown
“...[I]t was necessary and is necessary for us to come together and to reach an agreement. I think we missed an extraordinary opportunity to have a balanced, long-term grand design, if you will, deal which would have brought the deficit and debt down over the long term and would have been balanced. We didn't get there. But we did get some stability for the markets. We did, on our side, protect Medicare and Social Security from cuts to the most vulnerable in our society. No cuts to social security and the only cuts that might be in this on Medicare is to providers and capped at 2%. So that we have moved forward, we do have a committee option. Whether or not that committee will be able to work in a positive fashion, I think, is doubtful. But what we're going to do is we're going to have a caucus at 12:00 to meet with our members to get their views. All of them believe that default is not an option. They're disappointed that this deal wasn't as balanced as they hoped it would be. And we'll see how they react, but many of the members I’ve talked to, again, upper most in their mind is default is not an option. We have to protect America’s credit worthiness and the ability to grow jobs in our society and protect the American public."



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