Politics

Pelosi: Christmas dinner hinges on payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits debates [VIDEO]

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged House Republicans to pass the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefit extensions to ensure that the American people “have a Christmas dinner that they can pay for with some level of comfort.”

“Christmas is coming,” she said Friday. “The goose is getting fat. We’ve got to put money into the pockets of the American people — the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits extending — and we cannot go home unless we do.”

“The time is growing short and taking it to the limit of December 23rd or having to stay here over Christmas, it’s an inconvenience for us but it’s really unfair to the American people. And that’s really the point. It’s not about where we have our Christmas dinner. It’s about if the American people are going to have a Christmas dinner that they can pay for with some level of comfort,” she said.

Pelosi also said that the Keystone XL pipeline project is a “poison pill” proposed by House Republicans to “sink” the payroll tax cut extension. (RELATED: Pelosi: Unemployment benefits should not be paid for)

“This is not about the Keystone pipeline. Keystone pipeline is a completely separate issue,” she said. “It shouldn’t be on this package. It’s just not right. It’s a poison pill designed to sink the payroll tax cut.”

Watch:

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