Ed Henry Tells Carney "The American People Don't Want You To Play Games Here In Washington"
Q I just want to follow on the budget, because you told Jake before that the budget bill has not even been filed yet -- so Republicans are wrong because the budget bill has not been filed yet. But then when Norah asked you about the President’s conversation with Senator Reid, you’re basically saying they didn’t want to move forward on this because they wanted to wait and get the payroll thing done first. So, in fact, how can you tell Jake that the bill hasn’t been filed yet, when it’s the President and Senator Reid who didn’t want the bill filed? It’s not the Republicans who stopped it, they stopped it.
MR. CARNEY: No, no, no, no. There hasn’t been -- the appropriators, the participants in this process, while there have been reports of a general agreement and a handshake, there is not formal language, there is not a bill. What I said to Jake is absolutely true --
Q Hal Rogers, the Appropriations Chairman, says there is and that you’re holding it hostage.
MR. CARNEY: Is the bill filed?
Q He said he was ready to file it but it was stopped --
MR. CARNEY: Well, look --
Q He was ready to file it but the Democrats wouldn’t sign the conference report --
MR. CARNEY: There are still issues to resolve. Despite what you’ve heard, there are still issues to resolve, including the one that I highlighted, which is very important, that we can’t have a provision in there that makes it harder or restricts the ability to implement the Wall Street reform and consumer protection reforms that are so vital to Americans around the country and very important to this President. So it’s not --
Q But you said -- it’s not -- the American people don’t want you to play games here in Washington, right? Basically the President and Senator Reid decided that they’ll lose leverage if you pass this omnibus budget bill and you don’t do the payroll thing.
MR. CARNEY: Let me be clear -- you seem to be trying to catch me in plain sight here. I have made clear that the President and Senator Reid agreed that we cannot take the word -- unfortunately, through past experience, we cannot take promises by Republicans that they’ll get that payroll tax cut extended for 160 million Americans at some point at face value, because we know from past experience that we can’t --
Q But that’s another way of saying they stopped the budget bill so that you can pass the payroll tax cut extension first.
MR. CARNEY: Look, Ed, it is absolutely a fact that there are issues that still need to be resolved in the spending bill. Absolutely a fact -- A. B, it is absolutely a fact that this President does not believe Congress should leave on vacation until it has extended the tax cut to working and middle-class Americans that they received this year. And --
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