Pelosi Remarks at Press Event with Machinists Facing Plant Closures & Layoffs on Broken Promises of the #GOPTaxScam
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined House Democrats, Machinists Union International President Robert Martinez Jr. and hard-working machinists from across the country for a press event to highlight the broken promises of the #GOPTaxScam. Below are the Leader’s remarks:
Congressman Walz. Are there any machinists in the house?
Crowd. [Cheers] Yes!
Leader Pelosi. Indeed there are. All the hard-working men and women of labor who are taking the fight for their jobs and their futures to the Capitol. We are here to shine a bright light on the broken promises of the GOP tax scam.
We are standing with workers who are suffering from a raw deal of the Republican tax scam, padding the pockets of wealthy corporations that shut down American plants, lay off American workers and ship American jobs overseas.
We are honored to be joined by a giant of labor, Machinists International President, Bob Martinez.
[Applause]
It is a privilege to be here with machinists from all over America, three that we will be hearing from, James Lewis from Wellsville, New York, Jerome Frederick from St. Cloud, Minnesota and Rick Pence from Independence, Missouri. Thank you all for the courage to tell your stories.
And thank you to our Members representing communities from the coasts to heartland and you will be hearing from them as well. Representative Higgins from New York, Representative Walz of Minnesota, Representative Cleaver of Missouri.
We are here. You heard after they passed their tax scam that they were giving a tax break to corporate America, that 83 percent of the benefits were going to the top 1 percent, a big chunk, a trillion and a half dollars would go to corporate America. But don’t worry, they are going to create jobs, raise wages, create bonuses and the rest. Just didn’t happen. Republicans told the public that their tax giveaways would create jobs and raise wages. Sadly, workers across the nation are paying the price – paying the price – for the Republican tax scam dishonesty. The GOP tax scam actually rewards companies for shipping jobs overseas. Can you believe that? After all the statements they have made, it gives you a tax advantage for shipping jobs overseas over creating jobs in the US.
The GOP squandered $1.3 trillion on this tax [rate] cut, exploding the national debt. That’s not just the cost of it because interest on the money. Over $2 trillion taking our country deeper into debt.
And then the President brings out his budget and says, ‘Well, we have to tighten the belt. We are going to take a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, half a trillion out of Medicare, we are going to cut Social Security disability benefits.’
Why? To give a tax cut to the wealthiest 1 percent and to corporations, increasing our debt, putting a cloud over our future in terms of our budget priorities.
The budget should be a statement of our national values, what is important to us as a nation is where we should allocate funds for the future. But this is not a statement of the values of the United States of America.
To pour salt into the wound, the GOP tax scam ultimately raises taxes on 86 million middle class families. They masquerade out there that this is a middle class tax bill, but that’s not how it really turns out. So, I will talk about that in a moment.
Not before I talk about the fact that when we talk about corporations getting a tax break and all the good things they are going to do – fewer than 45 of the S&P 500 companies gave their workers bonuses in the four months since the GOP tax scam took effect. Out of 500, 45 at the most did something.
Barely 4 percent have seen any kind of onetime bonus or wage increase ,but it’s raining stock buybacks for all the wealthy shareholders on Wall Street. Working men and women deserve better.
We need a tax code that actually creates jobs. Let’s come together in a bipartisan way, with transparency in a way that produces a tax plan that actually creates growth, generates good-paying jobs and reduces the deficit. None of the above. It was behind closed doors. The dark of night at the speed of light and it takes us deeply into debt, does not create jobs or create growth.
Working men and women deserve better, as I said, with a tax code that actually promotes growth, generates good-paying jobs and reduces the deficit written in a bipartisan, transparent, unifying way.
Imagine in this bill – Republicans say to corporate America, ‘The tax breaks we give to you are permanent.’ And to the middle class they say, ‘Tax breaks we give you, not as much as we give to corporate America, they are not permanent, they will expire.’
Democrats want to rebalance the tax code to put the middle class first.
[Applause]
Middle class first. And to do so in a way that responsibly reduces the deficit. We need to fix this Republican raw deal with a Better Deal. A Better Deal for workers and their families, create jobs and invest in American manufacturing, give our workers the tools to succeed and, in doing so, also provide safety in the workplace as well and put economic power back in the hands of hard-working men and women.
It’s a question of who has the leverage, and we want the leverage in the hands of hard-working men and women.
Also, as I said to our machinist friends yesterday when we came together, the middle class is the backbone of our democracy. The middle class in America has a union label on it.
So, let’s keep that going!
Therefore, let us welcome a champion for America’s working families, a champion for the middle class, and all those who aspire to it, a great patriotic American. President of the Machinists, Bob Martinez.
* * *
I thank you to all of the machinists gathered here for sharing your stories. Some of you, I’ve heard your stories personally. Our VIPs for the day though are James Lewis, Jerome Fredrick and Rick Pence, thank you for sharing your story.
[Applause]
The strength of the stories. The truth of the stories. The impact of people on our country. So sad!
Let me just read to you what Senator [Marco] Rubio said about this tax bill: ‘There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they’re going to take the money they’re saving and reinvest it in American workers. In fact,’ Senator Rubio goes onto say, ‘They bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses;’ underline ‘there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.’
That’s right. And we have that evidence here today.
We’ve heard stories about the talk of bonuses. One place informed me that they were giving bonuses to their workers today, but you had to work at that place for 20 years to get a bonus.
Another place said that they were going to give bonuses, but then they were going to cut the workforce by 20 percent. Oh they were so sad. They were cutting the workforce by 20 percent. You can prevent it – they were told by AT&T of California – you can prevent it if you all agree to work 32 hours. Raise your family on that.
So this is central, central to the strength of our country. And I thank the machinists. For about 130 years, they have been central to America’s economy with workers’ rights.
[Applause]
Thank you President Martinez for carrying on that tradition in such a great way.
We think this is a raw deal for the American worker. We are proposing – Democrats are, in Congress – A Better Deal. We invite our Republican colleagues to join us for A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Pay, Better Future.
And that future means that we have a part of our Better Deal that is about workers’ rights, about collective bargaining, about safety in the workplace about protecting pensions, about supporting American families, and that is a choice that we think the American people have.
We want to do it, as I said earlier, in as bipartisan a way as possible. But your stories are the strongest messages to go forth because they resonate with families that are sharing those sad experiences. It contributes to their apprehension and it frightens them in terms of what their aspirations could be – but are not because of this uncertainty.
Can you think of a better phrase than what President Martinez said and was repeated by others? They’re taking the tax scam check in one hand and handing out pink slips in the other. It’s shameful. It’s shameful.
Are we ready for A Better Deal?
[Audience cheers]
I thought so, thank you all very much for coming!