If Democrats retake Congress, a priority will be raising taxes on all income groups by repealing the round of tax cuts Republicans passed earlier this year, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday.
Commenting on the tax reform law Republicans passed, Pelosi started a chant at a tax day protest, "We won't let it stand!"
Here's an excerpt from her remarks:
PELOSI: “Over a dark cloud over this capital, over our budget. So then they say, well, we have to make cuts because we’ve increased the debt. So we’re going to take $1 trillion out of Medicaid. Isn’t that obscene? A half of trillion dollars, half of trillion dollars out of Medicare, and Heather Booth (ph) knows — this — where is Heather? There she is, I just saw her. Heather knows this, while they take I have trillion out of Medicare, not this is consistent with them because they had said Medicare should wither on the vine. They had bad in their budget that Medicare should eliminate the guarantee, and instead the voucher, that’s what — further in that budget, trillion Medicaid cuts, have to trillion for Medicare, then they go on to take a couple hundred billion dollars from food stamps. $100 billion from education, hurting our children and the future. Now, sister Simone talked about Pope Francis, beautiful Pope Francis. I’ll talk about Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict first encyclical called God is love he quotes his favorite saint, St. Augustine. And in God is love he quotes Augustine as saying 17 centuries ago, 1700 years ago St. Augustine said, any government that does not exist to promote justice is just a bunch of thieves.
UNKNOWN MALE: “That’s right.”
PELOSI: “Seventeen centuries ago. Benedict goes on to say sometimes it’s a challenge to define justice, but in doing so we must beware of the dazzling blindness of special interest money and power.”
UNKNOWN MALE: “Amen.”
PELOSI: “Is that today? Is that today?”
UNKNOWN MALE: “We need a 50 state strategy.”
PELOSI: “So what we need — what we need is the American people to know, and that is what you are doing, a drumbeat across America to say this is not about our values, the budget is supposed be a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a nation should be how we invest in our children’s future, in the retirement of her seniors, in the air our kids breathe, the opportunities in the economy and the rest, be fair, fairness. That’s not what this budget — it’s a shame. It’s wrong. It’s wrong and we just, we cannot let it stand. We won’t let it stand. We won’t let it stand. We won’t let it stand! So thank you all very much for make sure it doesn’t stand, not only that that tax cut doesn’t stand but also the budget that they have proposed that is so lacking in values. So thank you all again, to the little lobbyist, to our friends in labor, to all of the supporters here, too Nicole Gill and Not One Penny. Take you all very much.” (Applause)
CROWD (chanting): “We won’t let it stand!”
UNKNOWN FEMALE: “Let’s give it up for Leader Pelosi.”