Last Updated on December 21, 2020
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is receiving widespread criticism for her out of touch remarks on Monday that described the $900 billion Congressional stimulus bills’ paltry $600 stimulus checks as a “significant” amount for working families. Pelosi had previously called employee bonuses of over $1,000 following Trump administration tax cuts as “crumbs.”
Speaking about the stimulus deal on Monday, Pelosi said, “We also have in the legislation, uh, direct payments, which were not in the Republican bill to America’s working families. I would have liked them to have been bigger, but they are, uh, significant.”
BREAKING: #Pelosi says $600 is a "significant" amount for working families.#LetThemEatCake #TrillionForBillionaires https://t.co/PjcIV9W1JX
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) December 21, 2020
While Pelosi is correct that Republicans such as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) did oppose stimulus payments in favor of corporate handouts to Big Business, other Republicans including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and President Donald Trump have fought for stimulus payments of $1,200 and above that greatly exceed the Democrat Party’s “significant” proposal.
Meanwhile, footage of Pelosi from 2018 has resurfaced in which she described massive bonuses given to private sector employees in response to President Trump’s sweeping tax reforms as “crumbs.” Many of the bonuses in question were well above $1,000.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Pelosi Struggles To Stand, Has To Be Hauled To Her Feet After Kneeling For BLM
“So in terms of the bonuses that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kinda put the schmooze on, is so pathetic, it’s so pathetic,” Pelosi said.
I'm old enough to remember when Nancy Pelosi referred to $1000 as "crumbs", but she has the balls to offer $600. pic.twitter.com/T8XBjdK0eV
— Mike (@FuctupMike) December 21, 2020
Nancy Pelosi in 2018 called $1,000+ bonuses that businesses gave employees after tax cuts "crumbs" and "pathetic" but just called the $600 stimulus checks "significant."pic.twitter.com/gAZgGPcKZ1
— The American Girl (@TheAmericanGrl) December 21, 2020
The stimulus checks approved by Congress this week are not in any way “significant” compared to the $1,200 checks authorized by President Trump earlier this year.
The Congressional “relief bill”predominantly consists of corporate bailouts for multinational monopolies that have already seens record profit during government-enforced COVID lockdowns.
Even if every American received the stimulus – many won’t qualify – the total expenditure would amount to a miniscule $196 billion of the bloated $900 billion bill.
$600 × 328 million = $196.8 billion
This bill is for $900 billion.
Guess who's getting that other $700+ billion.
— Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) December 21, 2020
As Sen. Hawley said last week when arguing for $1,200 payments, “Wall Street is doing great. Big Tech, they’re doing great. The big multinational corporations, fantastic. Working people, working people are living in their cars. Working people can’t go to the doctor. Working people can’t pay their rent. Working people can’t feed their children. They should be first, Mr. President, not last.”
