releases: https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-remarks-at-joint-press-conference-with-leader-schumer-on-the-negative
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| https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-remarks-at-joint-press-conference-with-leader-schumer-on-the-negative | Pelosi Remarks at Joint Press Conference with Leader Schumer on the Negative Impact of #GOPTaxScam | 2017-12-20 | 2017 | 2017-12 | Democrat | House | CA | Nancy Pelosi | P000197 | pelosi.house.gov | legacy | Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616 Washington, D.C. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to outline why the GOP tax bill will hurt Americans in communities across the U.S. Below are the Leaders remarks: Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks. Thank you very much, Mr. Leader. I associate myself with the Leader's remarks in the interest of time. When he talked about champagne bottles being opened in the executive suites and in the White House, I will add to that Joe Six-Pack is paying the price in a very severe way. Today, the House Republicans are cheering. They are toasting the fact that they raised taxes on 86 million American families, middle class families. Remember these three numbers. Eighty-six: 86 million middle class families get a tax increase. Eighty-three:83percent of the tax advantage goes to the top percent. Thirteen: 13 million Americans may lose health insurance as their premiums go up under elimination of the individual mandate. This is what they are [toasting] to. Now, the Republicans are taking their cruel victory lap, toasting it with champagne with their donors and the wealthiest. But they didn't do what they promised. Think of this: in the campaign, the president said that he would end the carried interest loophole. Instead, maybe he didnt communicate this to the Republicans in Congress, or maybe they used him as their front man, but they didn't do that. Instead they did not end the carried interest loophole. They protected and even added more loopholes for the richest. Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin, Secretary Mnuchin promised the GOP would not cut taxes for the rich, and then they handed the wealthiest one percent 83 percent of the benefits in this tax proposal. The president promised the middle class would benefit when he was on the campaign trail. And of course it raises taxes again on 86 million middle class American families. The GOP said it would pay for itself. It would pay for itself. Instead, it will explode the national debt. And on that score, when Speaker Ryan was asked this morning, while Mitch it was in the wee small hours. I don't know why he said what he said, but it was this morning, either early-early or later this morning he was saying the Speaker was on the TODAY show, and when they asked him if the tax bill would create enough growth to not add to the deficit, the Speaker said, nobody knows the answer to that. Well, we know the answer to that. It will not. And don't take it just from us. We have always known. Every credible analysis from every expert in or out of government, Republican and Democrat, say Republicans are exploding the debt with their giveaways to the wealthy. As Bruce Bartlett, who helped create the Republican tax trickle-down with Jack Kemp said: anyone who says this, it's not true, it's nonsense. Should I say what he said? Its B.S. But he said the full thing. And the Republicans know it. The Republicans only care about the deficit You know, whatever happened, I say it over and over. The poor deficit hawk its become, if not an endangered species, extinct, because the Republicans only seem to care about the deficit when it comes time to invest in people. Not when it comes time to give giveaways to corporate America and the wealthiest. That's okay, but the sad fact is: investing in people, the education of our children nothing brings more to the Treasury than investing in early childhood, K through 12, higher education, postgrad, lifetime learning for our workers. Nothing brings more money to the Treasury than investing in education, but that always has to be offset, whereas permanent tax cuts for corporate America to the tune of over a trillion dollars which will add more in terms of interest on the debt that does not have to be offset or paid for. If its corporate America, you have a free ride, if its investing in our children, you have to pay for it just look at CHIP being one example of that. So as their tax scam explodes the deficit, Republicans will tell seniors, Oh, we have this big deficit to disabled children, to working families, to seniors, We cant afford Medicare, Medicaid in fact they said this week about raising the age to be eligible for Social Security. Republicans are again we have a better path we hope going forward to make the case to the American people that we should be working in a bipartisan way to create growth that generates good-paying jobs that does reduce the deficit. Thats the comparison between us. In fact, when Speaker Boehner was Speaker, and this all came up in the Bush years, he wasnt Speaker then but he referenced it they said, trickle-down economics the policy they were advocating for if it creates jobs, thats good, but if it doesnt? So be it. Thats the free market free market. These guys had a hand in Uncle Sams pocket every step of the way, but its the free market when it comes to anything else. Americans saw right through this brazen con-job Republicans tried to sell them. Even the simplicity of it all --they were going to reduce the brackets they did not there were seven, they said it was going to be four its seven. They said you could return your taxes on a postcard, really? Maybe the size of this postcard [gesturing towards poster board] but I dont know how you get that through the mail. The American people saw the Republican tax scam is not working for American working families. The foundation has been laid on this message: the GOP tax scam is about bleeding the American people dry to pad the pockets of corporate America and the wealthiest one percent. Im pointing to the sign, Mr. Leader. Leader Schumer. I am certainly not in that bubble. Leader Pelosi. Insulting crumbs the insulting crumbs they give working families are meager and temporary. The tax breaks for corporate America are vast and permanent. After all the Presidents promises I am just thinking, Did he get conned by Republicans in Congress? Because they have kept their promises to the American people. Leader Schumer. Willingly conned. Leader Pelosi. Willingly conned. Hes responsible for his actions, for sure, but they have not kept his promises to the American people maybe that was the con? After all the Presidents promises, after all the Republicans brazen, brazen misrepresentations to the American people, the true face has been revealed. Instead of focusing on themillions of our veterans our veterans are theforgotten Americans Republicanshave voted to install apermanent plutocracy in ourcountry that does violence to the visionof our founders, violence to the vision of whatthey sacrificed so much for. Thank you. *** Leader Schumer. Questions firston this subject. Q: On the subject oneof the big Republican promiseswas that they were going tosweep corporate loopholes out ofthe tax code how did they do on that front? Leader Schumer. Every day we'refinding more corporate loopholesthat were put in that bill. That will continue over the nextmonth or two. When you do a bill in the dark,it gives a great opportunity forlobbyists to do their handiworkand give huge breaksto specific corporations andothers. The corporate loopholes areworse than ever in this bill it's more complicated today thanit was before they started. Its more regressive today thanbefore they started. Its more unfair today thanbefore when they started.. Leader Pelosi. By the way, theseare tax expenditures. That is spending the taxpayers'money to give to corporations ofcourse they are not paid for. Q: One of theconsequences of the bill is thatthey talked about having towaive the pay-go provisionshere. Thats something they want to doright away I know on your side, I haven'tspoken to you about it, but Mr.Hoyer said that they wouldprovide the votes, keep the government open ifthey put that in there, seems like you guys got Leader Schumer. They haven'tshown us any plan how they'llget it done. Lets wait until they come to usand tell us how they expect toget [it] done let's wait until they come to usand see what their plan is forgetting it done. Q: Do you think LeaderMcConnell misled Senator Collinsin promising they could pass thebills to win her support? Leader Schumer. Unclear whatthey said it's clear one thing, LeaderMcConnell and all theRepublicans have made the healthcare system much worse. Thirteen million people not covered. Premiums going up by 10 percent and no one believes that the twobills that Senator Collins wantsadded to this, which now theyhave said they are delayinguntil January, but no onebelieves that those two billswould make up for thedestruction that is caused byremoving the mandate and they are going to pay aprice for that, bigtime. They talk about, again, theincrease in premiums for so manyAmericans will far outweigh anytax decrease they get. Leader Pelosi. Those increases arewholly owned by the RepublicanParty. When you take the individualmandate and reduce by 13 millionpeople, perhaps that many fromthe pool, you're increasingcosts. Leader Schumer. One otherthing. [Senator] Patty Murray has said this Alexander-Murray was notdesigned for a system where themandate was removed. It doesn't work anymore. Its an empty promise whetherit's in a bill or out of a bill. Q: They are talkingabout correction bill on theextenders. You warned that there may beloopholes in here hemorrhagingrevenue. How much do and democrats engageon subsequent Leader Schumer. We think thisbill is so bad it's very hard tofix in small little tweaks. Well see what they propose, butour view we're going tohammer away at this. This is going to be an issue forus all year. This is not just forgotten. The fact they say once peoplelearn of what is in this billthey'll be for it. The Koch brothers have spenttens of millions of dollarstrying to persuade people thisis a good bill and [a] majority ofAmericans by most polls thinkit's a bad bill. The reason is simple:the suspicions of the Americanpeople that the Republican Partyis helping the wealthy and thepowerful corporations and notthe middle class has beenconfirmed in this bill. Leader Pelosi. Just to say: they dida massive bill that hastrillions of dollars of impacton the economywithout a single hearing, withonly the person from the jointtax committee responding toquestions at the markup, with accepting no amendments. And now, all of a sudden, theyhave this massive bill that theyhave done, the speed of light inthe dark of night, they thinkthat we're going that theyare going to tweak this intosomething better? We have to go to comprehensivetax reform in a bipartisan way,create growth, generategood-paying jobs, and reduce thedeficit. If they have those goals, youwouldn't end up if they hadthose goals you wouldn't end up Leader Schumer. We hadbipartisan talks going in theSenate with Republicans andDemocrats and the Republican Leadershippulled the Republicans out. We could have had a much betterbill, done in a bipartisan way,that would have been permanent,would have done much more forthe middle class and done muchmore to reduce the deficit. Leader Pelosi. That's not what theywere about. They weren't about the middleclass. In their DNA, the Republicansare about tax cuts for thewealthy and corporate America. They are for trickle down. They are not for bubble up. Q: The Republicansrepeatedly said, look, the proofwill be in the paycheck nextyear you are going to see more money that you can spend on your own. What can you point to asDemocrats to say, this tax planisn't so good for you? Leader Schumer. First, a wholelot of people will get taxincreases and, second, the average Americansays, even if I get $100 taxdecrease, why is the wealthyperson getting a $50,000 taxdecrease? The decrease should go to themiddle class and people tryingto get there, not wealthy people. Thats why the bill is sounpopular. They know what this bill is allabout. They know they are gettingcrumbs, if that, while the wealthy are gettingbig pieces of cake that's why it's so unpopular. Q: Eighty percent would see somekind of tax cut. Is that true? Leader Schumer. The Tax PolicyCenter certainly said some would get atax cut,but it's small it vanishesand the wealthy get a muchbigger break. Thats what the American polling data, very interesting. The world has changed since thetime even of George W. Bush'stax cuts. When people ask if you get asmall tax break and the wealthy geta big tax break, do you want itor not? Overwhelmingly, the people sayno. Q: Different topic. Leader Schumer. Any more onthis one? Q: On the child taxcredit, could you talk about theDemocratic provision not tosupport the Rubio-Lee amendment? Was it a missed opportunity? Leader Schumer. The Rubio-LeeAmendment wasn't hardlyanything we had a much better proposal. They missed opportunity by notsupporting in our house theBrown-Bennet proposal, whichwould have done something. So many of our Republicancolleagues knew this was a badbill. They tried to tweak it to makeit a tiny little bit better that's not going to solve theproblem at all. Leader Pelosi. In that regard, oneof the champions of the childtax credit in our house,Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, whohas devoted her life toaddressing the needs of childrenin America, child tax credit wassomething she wanted. It's important to note this:if you make $400,000 a year, youget a $4,000 child tax credit family of four you're a single mom with twochildren making $14,000 a year,how much do you think you get?Seventy-five dollars 75 dollars. Leader Schumer. The child taxcredit they did mirrors whatthey have done in the bill the wealthier you are, thebetter you did. Leader Pelosi. Not just amount ofmoney percentage. Q: How do you point theDemocrats keep hammering thisgoing forward, you alluded tothis, the President himselftends to do very well under thisbill. Is that going to be acentral part of the Democrats'message? Leader Schumer. The Presidentdoes very well under this bill. Most of his cabinet does verywell under this bill large percentage of hiscontributors do very well underthis bill. Yes,the President is part of the top1 percent and the bill is aimed to helpthe top 1 percent. So the President's part andparcel to the problem. Leader Pelosi. Our focus in thecampaign will be what this meansto people and their individuallives financial insecurity, financialinstability is a major concern apprehension for the Americanpeople and we have to show them thereis a better way. We have a Better Deal: BetterJobs, Better Wages, Better Future, and that's part of the debatethat we will have. Yes, they get all of that at theexploitation of the workers and on top of it all, which isreally kind of very sad, is theytry to represent that, it's aboutthe middle class. Let me go back to [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin. I think his statement is just so Mnuchin, we're talking aboutbillionaires here. Leader Schumer. [Secretary] Mnuchin seemsto make it up as he goes along. Leader Pelosi. [Mnuchin] says, GOP wont cut taxes for the rich. The GOP handed the top 1 percent 83 percent ofthe benefits that's one part what does it mean to you in yourlife? You are going to lose some ofyour deductions whether it's onyour mortgage or estate taxes the SALT [state and local income tax] will hurt people and the services they receivefrom their state and localgovernments. It is also about they are goingto lose access to quality,affordable health care as well the list goes on and on it's really more about ourconstituents. Yes, making the contrast, butfocusing on what it means tothem. Leader Schumer. About ourconstituents one place we'llfocus on is the suburbs this is a horrible bill for somany suburban people. And they know itand the suburbs are now, I think, going to move much bluerbecause of this tax bill. Q: Will you allowCongress to adjourn without aCHIP deal? Leader Schumer. Look, we'retrying to get as good a deal aspossible. We're not going to negotiateagainst ourselves right here,but the bottom line is wehaven't even seen anything, theyare so busy with the taxproposal that we haven't seena proposal haven't evenseen a proposal.Leader Pelosi can talk about thehouse. We haven't seen a thing fromSenate Republicans. We have to see what theyproposed. Bottom line is there are thingsthey want, things we want. If they sit down with us, wecould come to a good agreement. If they don't, it will lead toreal problem. Leader Pelosi. The Children'sHealth Insurance Program serves9 million children in ourcountry. Its authorization ended onSeptember 30, the end of thefiscal year. For three months, nearly, howmany months is that, we have hadthis vacuum where states arelosing funds running out of funds to meet theneeds,and what are the republicansdoing? They sent a bill to the floorcalled the Walden bill. How they pay, because you haveto pay for children's health,you have to pay for corporateAmerica how do they pay for it? What offsets do they use? Other children's health in order to pay for the CHIPprogram, they'll take money outof the prevention fund, which isabout inoculations for children, it's about addressing leadpoisoning in regard to children and other issues that relate tochildren's health. So they are saying to children,we'll pass the Children's HealthInsurance Programs, but you aregoing to pay for it out ofanother children's account that's totally unacceptable. That's the bill they sent to thefloor. That's the bill we votedagainst. That is the same bill that theysay they are going to put in theCR. Leader Schumer. Why did theywait so long? Childrens health has been introuble in since September. On issue after issue, they havebeen so busy giving tax breaksto the wealthy that they haveneglected so many issues,including CHIP, including FISA,including issues very importantto America they are derelict in theirduties now they are scrambling at thelast minute.One more. Q: The House isconsidering taking up a billthat would boost defensespending there is less money Leader Schumer. From what wehave been told, the previous anomaliesare ways to get around thedefense cap. We will not accept that. One way or the other they should we have said all alongthere's got to be parity,defense goes up, spending for average familiesgoes up. In terms of health care, interms of education, in terms ofinfrastructure, veterans, opioids, pensions. Were sticking with that. Were not letting them try toget around this one way or theother. Thank you, everybody. # # # | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |