Pelosi Has No Regrets Over Passing Climate Bill

By Linn Grubbstrom - Talk Radio News Service

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) discussed the importance of investing in renewable energy during her weekly news conference. Pelosi said the oil spill in the Gulf along with a push to pass energy legislation in the Senate has convinced her that passing the America’s Clean Energy and Security Act was the right thing to do.

“It was absolutely essential for us, from a national security standpoint, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil…to reduce the emissions of fossil fields into the air…and be number one on the new green technology,” she said. “We staked down a bold position, one that was a consensus within our caucus, one that received some Republican votes. We are very proud of it.”

Pelosi also slammed Senate Republicans for delaying passage of a bill to extend unemployment benefits to millions of jobless Americans.

“It shouldn’t have been so hard,” she lamented. “Republicans in the Senate have stood in the way of so many initiatives, including unemployment insurance, until now.”

The House is expcted to finally pass the bill later today.

Boehner Rejects White House's Notion That Stimulus Has Worked

By Celia Canon-Talk Radio News Service

On Thursday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio.) slammed Vice President Joe Biden over the inefficiency of the Democrats’ stimulus plan and the lack of jobs it has created in Boehner's home state of Ohio.

“Ohio's unemployment rate is above 10 percent. The nation's unemployment continues to rise. And families and small businesses across the country are asking, ‘Mr. Vice President, where are the jobs?’,” Boehner said.

Boehner blamed the Obama administration for its inability to restore jobs to Americans across the country.

“The administration promised the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, and they promised the stimulus would create jobs immediately. It's pretty clear now that the administration was wrong,” Boehner said.

The House Minority Leader cited other Democratic legislation that he believes could worsen the economy as well, saying “Here we are at a time when we're trying to save jobs in America, help get our economy going again, and all people see is a lot of wasteful Washington spending, job-killing measures like energy and health care, and, oh, yes, we've got to take care of the saltwater marsh mouse.”

On Wedndesay, Boehner said President Obama and Vice President Biden have been telling lies about why the Stimulus package hasn’t reversed the nation’s spiraling unemployment rate, and argued that GOP-backed tax cut plans would a better solution to return momentum to the struggling economy.

Boehner also touched on the recent letter which incriminates the CIA on enhanced interrogation methods, insisting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should apologize for having accused the intelligence agency of a lack of transparency.

“I do not believe that the CIA lied to Congress. I'm still waiting for Speaker Pelosi to either put up the facts or retract her statement and apologize. And I don't know that this letter changes anything with regard to the speaker's action,” Boehner said.

Pelosi Cautious On Climate Meeting With China

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

U.S Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was reserved in her choice of words today at the Brookings Institution as she reflected on her recent bipartisan trip to China to discuss the communist country’s climate efforts.

“This trip was very important for us because the U.S and China are the biggest emitters of gases and we have to come to terms in order for us to come to a multilateral agreement in Copehagen.” said Pelosi

The U.S delegation made the May trip after an invitation from the Chinese government. The meeting may have also given the U.S an ally against the growing threat that North Korea poses since its alleged nuclear and missile tests.

Bruce Klingner, an analyst for the Heritage Foundation, said that the Obama administration is “trying to press China to be less obstructionist, to allow for a greater punitive measure against North Korean government agencies.”

Why this (the climate crisis) “is important is we see it as a national security issue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We see it as an economic issue to create clean energy jobs and to be competitive in our investments and our innovation and technology so that we can be the world leader,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi spoke about how the American delegation prepared for this trip, saying “We arrived in China, we knew what we were going there to do but of course with our message reinforced from what we had just seen (in Alaska) also equipped with a bill that had passed Congress on Thursday which was a historic, momentous legislation on how we would go forward.”

The House Speaker confirmed that China has already demonstrated efforts to take energy consumption and climate into consideration, as she said “The Chinese have done remarkable things... in terms of closing down coal plants that were inefficient, the investments in research and actual construction of buildings in different ways so they'd use less energy in their construction and on the ongoing.”

But Pelosi reported that, despite efforts towards for climate improvement on a certain level, the delegation was met with a certain resistance from their Chinese counterparts with regards to further resolutions.

“What they wanted to be clear to us is that as they were doing this and they were investing in the technologies and the rest... they were going to be developing still, sustainable development with more of an emphasis on the development side,” said Pelosi.

Every year, “600,000 die of pollution in China,” according to Pelosi.

Pelosi: Democrats Stand By The IMF

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Despite the uncertainties that Congressional Republican leaders have on the efficacy of the reform of the International Monetary Fund, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is adamant that “The IMF will have a strong support from the Democrats.”

Pelosi defended the international organization today at her weekly press conference where she also mentioned the success of her recent bipartisan trip to China.

House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Whip Eric Cantormay, backed by other House Representatives who fear that Democrats are fusing two very different entities, the IMF and a bill, together, said that "Weighing down this critical legislation with non-defense spending will only drag this process out further and cost it essential Republican support needed for passage."

Cantor added that “We should not be having this discussion. IMF funding has no business being included in the war supplemental bill,” while adding that the funding may result in helping terror-sponsoring states such as Pakistan.

The debate over funding of the IMF has stemmed from President Barack Obama’s announcement at the April Group of 20 meeting that $100 billion will be granted to the IMF as part of the U.S war-bill which should further the fight against the global economic crisis.

Obama also said that the U.S would support the IMF as it sell 400 tons of gold, whilst Pelosi reminded that “It [the IMF] has been reformed so that it will help the poor. They wanted to sell gold, we said you can, but the proceeds have to go to help the poor.”

Responding to Cantor’s allegations, Pelosi said “I don’t know why anyone would say that the money is going to the hands of terrorists, it’s simply not based on facts and is a scare tactic.”

Pelosi also said “There are two contradictory things: one says that one shouldn’t be on war funding, which is our responsibility to support our troops in the war in Iraq, end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home and fight terrorism where is it a threat to our country, which is in Afghanistan, and we know that we have to do that." She added that “The IMF, in its reformed state, can be a force for alleviating the despair amongst people in the world. It’s a very important national security initiative.”

“The issue of the IMF, I think, has strong support on the Democrats’ side; not any support we’re hearing on the Republican side,” Pelosi said.

This war-bill, which involves military and diplomacy costs for Iraq and Afghanistan, will skyrocket to over $100 billion.