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Tags: Steny Hoyer | Nancy Pelosi | House | midterm elections | Democrats | Republicans

Hoyer: Pelosi Wrong on Democrats Taking Over House

By    |   Monday, 29 September 2014 11:39 AM EDT

When it comes to Democrats taking over the House of Representatives in the midterm November elections, the House minority whip thinks the House minority leader's predictions are like whistling through a graveyard.

In an interview with The Washington Post, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he believes House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vastly overestimated the Democrats' chances of reclaiming leadership of the House.

Pelosi, in July, said that the voter appeal of her "100 Day Action Plan" could enable Democrats to pick up 25 seats in the elections, or eight more than Democrats would need to capture the House, but Hoyer publicly disagrees.

"I definitely think we can pick up seats," he told the Post, but disagreed that the House can be taken over by the Democrats.

While Pelosi said Democrats have 70 districts in play, Hoyer noted that may be true "in terms of some of the good candidates we have, but I think the number is less than that, frankly, that we have reasonable opportunities to win."

"Redistricting has hurt us," he added.

While giving the Republicans a 76 percent chance of controlling the Senate after November, the Post's election lab gives the GOP an overwhelming 99 percent chance of retaining control of the House.

Should the Democrat's miracle November dream somehow occur, Hoyer said, the party likely would take action on boosting the federal minimum wage, lift pay for female workers, work toward immigration reform and direct federal money toward infrastructure projects and education.

"We think that they’re issues that the American public think ought to be on the agenda and ought to be in law," he told the Post.

Under Pelosi's plan, Democrats also would push for tax breaks for companies creating jobs, end tax breaks for large corporations, reform student loan programs and bolster the Violence Against Women Act, the Post reported.

Hoyer said his goal is to move Congress away from the gridlock which has characterized its actions during the Obama Administration.

"My proposition is essentially, you don’t like what Congress has been doing. Essentially the board of directors — Republicans — have walked away from you and the country and their responsibility. They haven’t had an open Congress and have presided over the least productive Congress in which I’ve served," he told the Post.

"The American people deserve a Do-Something Congress," Hoyer plans to say. "In fact, they deserve a Do-The-Right-Thing Congress. Which is exactly what House Democrats are ready to do by working across the aisle to achieve results."

Should Democrats lose seats in November, there is talk that Pelosi, 74, could step down and, should that occur, Hoyer said he would be interested in the Democrat House leader seat.

"I don’t think anybody would think it’d be credible for me to say no to that, but I’m very comfortable working with Leader Pelosi and frankly I’ve really enjoyed being majority leader and if I were again, that was a great job that I thought gave me a chance to make a difference," he told the Post.

"If Nancy weren’t here, would I want to be the speaker or leader, the answer to that I think is clear."

Hoyer, 75, served as majority leader from 2007-2011.

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When it comes to Democrats taking over the House of Representatives in the midterm November elections, the House minority whip thinks the House minority leader's predictions are like whistling through a graveyard.
Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, House, midterm elections, Democrats, Republicans
537
2014-39-29
Monday, 29 September 2014 11:39 AM
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