Nancy Pelosi calls GOP tax law a 'scam' as she defends $3trn Democratic coronavirus bill

President’s top economic advisor says nation cannot ‘spend its way’ out of pandemic

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has defended a coronavirus relief package the House is slated to take up and which critics have said is too big. She also contrasted it to a series of 2017 Republican tax laws she called a “a scam”.

House Democrats are expected by late Friday evening to pass the $3trn bill even though top Senate Republicans have called it “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber. White House aides say Donald Trump would not sign it into law. That means it has will have no life left in Washington and no chance to become law, though Ms Pelosi crafted the bill and is bringing it to the floor to give Democratic members a chance to vote for some of their biggest priorities in an election year.

It includes billions of dollars for state and local governments, help for people struggling with rent and mortgage payments, expanded mail-in voting for the elections this November, and an infrastructure package that includes a plan to expand broadband internet access

But Republicans say it would be too pricey, especially after Congress already has allocated trillions to respond to the coronavirus in several other pieces of legislation.

“This amount of money is not as much as Republicans put forth for their [2017] tax scam bill, keeping 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent. So when you think of it as being so big, it’s not as big as their tax scam,” the speaker told MSNBC.

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“This is one of the broadest bills that we’ve ever seen come before the Congress. And let me say what is in it, as you say what might not be in it,” Ms Pelosi said, describing the legislation as a “marker” for possible negotiations about yet another Covid-19 relief package.

“It is a bill that is our marker, that we are putting down for the American people,” she said.

Congressional Republican leaders are calling the House Democrats’ legislation a “wish list” driven by its most left-leaning wing. At the White House aides to Mr Trump are not ruling out another relief package, and have signalled some willingness to discuss with Democrats how to help cash-strapped state and local governments.

"Another $3 trillion package seems off target to me," Larry Kudlow, Mr Trump's chief economic adviser said Friday, adding White House officials are taking a "wait-and-see" approach to a possible additional bill.
 
"Let's see how it goes," he said after in recent weeks suggesting Trump administration officials would prefer seeing how some states beginning to reopen might boost the flailing economy. "I don't believe we can spend ourselves into prosperity."

“We certainly do not support the Pelosi bill full of Democratic wishes, like giving direct payments with American taxpayer dollars to illegal immigrants. That is unacceptable,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Thursday.

“As for plans for [a] phase four [relief bill], the president said he is taking his time and being thoughtful about this. These are American taxpayer dollars. We have pumped trillions in already, so he is taking his time to think about the most thoughtful way to go about a ‘phase four,’” Ms McEnany told reporters.

“He is open to it, he mentioned the payroll tax is a good example of something that he would like to see in there, not a condition, but certainly something he would like to see, and he is open to it but taking his time.”

Democratic legislators, however - and even many Republicans - say a payroll tax reduction provision likely would sink any additional relief bill.