Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was asked during a Wednesday press conference if she felt disappointment in the rollout of the Obamacare website. The reporter cited that in 2010 Democrats lost their majority because of their vote on Obamacare.
Pelosi responded the 2010 midterm elections that caused the Democratic Party it’s leadership in the House were a result of their vote on TARP, not their vote for Obamacare.
Below is a transcript of the exchange:
Q: Thank you very much. In 2010, a lot of your members took a huge risk in supporting the law. It can be argued that the reason why -- (off mic) -- is because of the law, not still speaker. Do you feel disappointed that after such a huge collective sacrifice by House Democrats, that this law, in its first three weeks, is nowhere near ready for prime time?
REP. PELOSI: No.No.
Q: Not at all.
REP. PELOSI: No. No, I don't. First of all, I don't even buy into the idea that we lost the election because of health care. One of the most damaging votes that our members had to take was the TARP, 700-plus-billion dollars to bail out Wall Street, in the view of the public. We didn't see it that way. We saw it as rescuing our economy from a financial services meltdown, and it was necessary for us to do. But I'm glad you asked that question because it enables me to say the Democrats were the ones who saved the day with that vote. And people never really got over that vote. It really almost, in some ways, gave birth to the tea party because they did not like what they viewed as a Wall Street bailout, and certainly the Occupy, which -- who have a good -- more in common than they may know. But that was really the vote that sort of soured people. They didn't like that vote at all. And they judged many other things in light of, well, bailing out the banks but not bailing out Wall Street. Recklessness on Wall Street causing joblessness on Main Street. All of that. Now, we did the responsible thing, what we had to do. But the Democrats produced 170-some votes in order to do that. I think that was probably the toughest vote members had to take, which was one that a few weeks before, they didn't even realize they were going to have to take, because we didn't -- the White House did not reveal to us the extent of the problem or what they thought a solution was to it until September 18th in 2008. The -- so there's that. The Affordable Care Act -- the decision -- members came here to do a job, not to keep a job, whether it's member of Congress or speaker of the House. What's so important about that compared to tens of millions of people having access to affordable care in our country, that we would be about a healthy nation -- not just health care, but the health of America, with prevention and technology to -- and innovation to make us healthier at lower cost and with better quality care. So that was our mission, we accomplished it, and we're proud of it.