Nancy Pelosi was caught off-camera berating a reporter who kept asking her whether or not she would accept the Senate’s short=term compromise. (See video below)
Q: Will you pass a bill to invoke a short term renewal of these benefits so that they don’t lapse for Americans?
Chairman Neal. It’s the Speaker’s call, but I will tell you this: Ways and Means Committee intends next week to hold a hearing on Unemployment Insurance.
Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, let me just say this: we have food stamps in there, and they’re like, ‘What, you want more money for food stamps?’ We have housing in there. ‘What? You want money for housing?’ We have this benefit in there.
There is – I would be very much averse to separating this out and lose all leverage for meeting all of the other needs. It’s a fraudulent tactic, and with all due respect to you, an unworthy question when it comes to meeting the needs of America’s working families.
But we have – I’m glad you’re having the hearing to keep the spotlight on it.
What is the point – they could have done – they could have done their job, as you said. Do your job. I mean, this is dereliction of duty and our responsibility to the American people, and now you’re saying, ‘What? You just bailed them out.’ So, they can ignore all the needs that we have for testing, all the needs we have for state and local government, all the needs we have for food security, all the needs we have for the OSHA benefit that is in the bill, all the needs that we have for vote-by-mail and other priorities that we have that are about justice.
Q: I understand all of that, but are you considering extending these benefits for a month or two while you continue to negotiate?
Speaker Pelosi. No, no, no, no.
Congressman Kildee. Point being, Republicans have every bit of information they need to make the decision.
Speaker Pelosi. Do you understand no?
Q: Well I just – for people who are at home –
Speaker Pelosi. No.
Q: – but what do people who are at home –
Speaker Pelosi. No.
Q: – you know, how are they going to pay for groceries next week?
[Crosstalk]
Speaker Pelosi. No. Pass the bill.
Congressman Kildee. Pass the bill. That’s it.
Chairman Neal. And a good bill. That’s the thing. It’s really a good piece of legislation, I mean if you go through it with the retention tax credit and all, it’s really a good piece of legislative work.
Nancy Pelosi has a mental breakdown on camera ..starts yelling “NO” over and over at a reporter …pic.twitter.com/NTY9YV6XH4
— Ruthann (@TeaBoots) July 25, 2020
Speaker Pelosi. It’s a tactic in order to not honor our other responsibilities. We will not be a party to their tactics.
Q: Speaker Pelosi.
Speaker Pelosi. If it’s on this subject – let’s stay on this subject, and I’m not going to answer any other questions.
Q: It’s on this subject. Republicans – Senate Republicans want to keep their bill within a trillion dollars. Given money for education, more money for PPP, et cetera, when you bring in the Unemployment Insurance benefit of another $600, do you think it is possible to extend that benefit at that level and keep a bill within a trillion dollars?
Speaker Pelosi. No. You know, what we said to the Republicans – I want to tell you something. This is deadly serious. A house is burning down in terms of the economic security of America’s families and these people are fiddling, wherever they may be this weekend.
So, when you talk about, ‘Well, they want to do a trillion dollars, so how can we do $600 for those in the most need when they got other things they want to do?’ That’s why Chuck and I – distinguished Leader and I said to them, ‘Put your bill on paper. Put your bill on paper, and then we’ll see what you have included and what you have left out. And then the American people will see what you have included and what you have left out.’
But I’m telling you, you can’t have any more patience. You know, it’s a wonderful thing I read. It’s amazing how much patience people can have with other people suffering. Well, we don’t have that patience on our side of the aisle.
And so, for them to say a trillion dollars, when they spent $2 trillion to give a tax cut to the richest people in American, 83 percent of the benefits to the top one percent.
Chairman Neal. Which was borrowed. They borrowed it.
Speaker Pelosi. And they borrowed it. They heaped it on the backs of our children for future generations. So, let us see what their trillion dollars gets them, and what are they excluding?
They have nothing for state and local, where people are working, health care professionals, food suppliers, transit workers, teachers, teachers, teacher, sanitation workers, people who make our system run. Over a million and half of them have been fired already because of the needs of the coronavirus, the expenses of the coronavirus and the revenue lost because of coronavirus. Take that out. Let these people go. Okay, so now they don’t have jobs. They probably have to go on unemployment, right? So what money have they saved?
And then, we have testing, testing, testing. They shut down their cafeteria the minute somebody got infected in the White House complex. They shut it down. They’re testing and tracing.
Why can’t they put that money there for the states in a substantial way with a strategic plan to do that? So, what money do they have there for that?
Then, we have the money for rental assistance and mortgage forbearance and food stamps, as I keep saying. The one thing I can’t even understand is how they could even show their faces by saying, ‘Food stamps? You want more money for food stamps? Why would we – why would we do that?’ Well, because people are hungry in America. Doesn’t that motivate you?
So, a trillion dollars that – our bill, 3.4 [trillion dollars], mean and lean. It’s everything we need. It’s nothing extra. So, let’s see where their trillion dollars takes them, and not have them use that as a reason why they can’t give America’s working families $600.
Don’t get me started on that $600.
[Laughter]
Congressman Kildee. I think it’s important – it’s important to note though, even if somehow – even if somehow the Republicans can’t conjure some empathy for these families, which is hard to comprehend, they ought to at least be able to comprehend the fact that to the extent that this economy has been barely held together is because these families have had this unemployment and the spending power to go down to the corner grocery store and to pay their rent and to take care of their families. That money goes directly into the U.S. economy.
So, even if they can’t figure out a way to have sympathy and empathy for the families that would be hurt and harmed so much by this, they ought to at least enroll in an entry level economics class and understand if you take that money out of the economy, this whole house of cards is going to collapse. And that’s why they need to act now.
Q: On the issue of price tag, The Heroes Act passed two months ago plus, and conditions changed on the ground, obviously –
Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, we need more money.
Transcript from Speaker.gov.
