House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not interested in President Donald Trump’s payroll tax cut demand and she is explaining why.
The Democratic lawmaker appeared on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer where they discussed the president’s proposal for a payroll tax cut.
The CNN anchor played a clip from Trump’s virtual town hall meeting on Sunday where he claimed Democrats are pushing for state bailouts. At the time, the president also said that he would not do anything with the next stimulus package unless a payroll tax cut is included.
However, Pelosi has already made it clear she is not budging. Blitzer asked, “So, is a payroll tax cut okay from your point of view, or is it a non-starter?”
“No it is not,” Pelosi responded.
See Pelosi’s remarks below:
Pelosi argues that the coronavirus is the direct cause of the dire financial situation many states are currently facing. She is also blaming the president’s “delayed” response.
“First of all, this is all to be related to the coronavirus,” Pelosi said. “We have enormous, enormous costs, much of it incurred because the President was in denial early on, delayed a reaction to it, caused deaths.”
Pelosi went on to criticize the president, claiming he is attempting to politicize the pandemic by labeling states based on governors’ political parties.
“We’re talking about life and death. We’re talking about people dying. We’re talking about people risking their lives to save people’s lives. We’re not talking about red state, blue state.”
Blitzer also asked Pelosi why she believes a payroll tax cut is the “wrong” decision. She offered an explanation arguing that stimulus options are the correct way to go based on funds already allocated.
“We have $500 billion for states, $250 [billion], maybe $300 billion for local. … This is a way for us to address the situation,” Pelosi explained. “There are other things: Direct payments, unemployment Insurance, issues like PPP. There’s a great deal of money that is being put out there in a way that helps businesses stay open. But, not only that, let them have customers when they are open.”
“We didn’t just start this bill yesterday. This bill is what we were in the works with CARES 1. They did $150 [billion] for state and local. It wasn’t enough. We are continuing that. And we did testing in our first bill, March 4th, and then testing last week. But we need more, so all of these things are things that we can agree.”
Asked again about Trump’s proposal, Pelosi said, “Well I’m not negotiating with the president on television right here.”
As states prepare to reopen, the United States is still facing daily increases in coronavirus cases. As of Tuesday morning, there are more than 1.2 million coronavirus cases in the United States as the death toll continues to climb toward 70,000.