Monday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said President Donald Trump’s executive orders addressing the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic were an “illusion” meant to bolster the stock market and cut benefits to children who are “food insecure in our country.”
Pelosi said, “What we’re seeing is illusion. It’s important to enlarge the issue to understand that what the president does is say I’m doing things to help people, which he isn’t, and then the stations pick it up and say the president is doing something to help people, and it’s all about one thing, the stock market. And the market’s picking up, the markets go up, that’s his question, what’s the market doing. The Fed and president’s illusion is they’re bolstering the stock market, and we’re saying let’s bolster America’s working families. What he’s saying—he cannot alleviate the tax, can only defer it. If he were to forgive it, it would hurt Medicare and Social Security.”
She continued, “Three months ago, we passed the HEROES Act in the House of Representatives to meet the needs of the American people. At that time, Leader McConnell pushed the pause button, and during that pause, 3.5 million more people were added to the list of those infected. Over 75,000, more people have died once they pushed pause. Last week they came up with meager proposals, and the president, over the weekend, did even less to give illusion so the market would go up and people who are not paying attention would think he might be doing something. But let me say this, we have children who are food insecure in our country. In our bill, we had $60 billion, in theirs, $250,000. And to go to his country club where he wants to give a tax break, capital gains tax break again to the high end, they didn’t have money for children who are food insecure but did have a tax deduction for business lunches that cost half a billion dollars to give. ”
She added, “I think it’s important to note as you’re giving your history lesson the difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to meeting the needs of the American people. It shouldn’t be partisan to feed our children. It shouldn’t be partisan that we not allow people to be evicted because they’re caught up in a pandemic. It shouldn’t be partisan that the president of the United States would say to people in the course of a pandemic, uncertainty about health and schools and uncertainty about money in their pockets, guess what I have for you — a benefit cut.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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