Hoyer Discusses the Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and the GOP's Tax Reform Framework on CNN and Bloomberg

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined CNN and Bloomberg today to discuss the urgent humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islandsand Republicans' tax reform framework. Below are excerpts from the interviews and links to the videos:

On CNN:

On the Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands:

“We haven't deployed enough resources at this point in time…. We need to deploy every resource necessary. Very frankly that aircraft carrier that went into Florida should be diverted down to Puerto Rico now. The air assets and requisite personnel and what General Honore said, I hope General Buchanan has all of the authority he needs to get this job done. We have people, I talked to Secretary Price this morning, early this morning, about people who are dying because of their inability to get to a dialysis center that works. Frankly, they can't get anywhere. The dialysis centers are up and running in the urban areas but folks can't get to it. We need to have enough personnel on the ground working every day to make sure that we can save lives. We ought to have legislation to give the resources to rehabilitate. But right now, this is about saving lives in the face of one of the biggest humanitarian crises we’ve had in this country. We ought to respond as vigorously as we would respond to any other crisis in the world or here on the mainland.”

On Bloomberg TV:

On Republicans’ Tax Reform Framework:

“Well, I think this is going to be the granddaddy of debt creation, if this bill passed. We don’t have the details, we have some of their suggestions but we don't have the details on how they're going to pay for this. And in my opinion, it's going to just be like the 2001 and 2003, and frankly the 1981, tax packages. They created great debt and did not advantage the middle class but did advantage the upper tiers of our society…. Obviously in the House you can jam it through but you are not going to get Democrats to support a bill that is not fair to the middle class, that is not paid for, and does not reflect a bipartisan agreement on who is benefitted and who is paying.”

“There is no bill. There are no specifics. There have been no hearings and no markups. It would be premature for me to say we are going to ask Members to vote against it, because there is no ‘it.’ Certainly we are going to send the message… it’s got to advantage the middle class, b, it's got to not balloon the deficit and be balanced and paid for, and, c, it's got to be a bipartisan product.”

“[Republicans] have been unable to pass major pieces of legislation because their party has been so deeply divided. When we have passed major pieces of legislation, that we needed to pass, it was done with substantial Democratic help. So when they came across the aisle, we did in fact cooperate, and we did reach consensus and solutions to tough issues.”

On the Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands:

“We have a humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. These are Americans who are on islands…. General Honore was just on another program with me saying we’ve been too late with too little, and I think he’s right. We need to deploy all of the resources necessary…. We have General Buchanan, General Kim who have been asked to coordinate these efforts in the islands. They need to have all the resources necessary to get the job done and save lives, we are losing lives in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as we speak.”