House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended raising taxes on America’s wealthiest citizens in order to fund President Joe Biden’s “American Families Plan” and said Republicans raised the national debt during the Trump administration.
“Again, what he’s [Biden] talking about is exactly just to reverse some of what the Republicans did in their tax scam where they added almost $2 trillion to the national debt if you include the cost and the interest on the debt to give tax breaks to the top, top, top wealthiest people in our country,” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” Biden is scheduled to announce the “American Families Plan” on Wednesday during a joint congressional session address, marking the third major spending proposal since becoming president.
Senior administration officials say the proposal will have a price tag of $1.8 trillion, following the “American Jobs Plan” and the “American Rescue Plan,” which were $2.25 trillion and $1.9 trillion respectively. (RELATED: ‘Creating A Dependency Culture Is Dangerous’: Newt Gingrich Warns About Biden’s Trillion Dollar Packages)
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The plan will be funded primarily through tax increases on the wealthy and by closing various loopholes.
The proposal includes giving “universal, quality-preschool to all three- and four- year-olds” and “two years of free community college,” according to a White House fact sheet. Biden seeks more than $80 million in “Pell Grants, which would help students seeking a certificate or a two- or four-year degree” and wants “four years of free, public education for our nation’s children.”
Pelosi said Republicans had no qualms “to spend $1.9 trillion to give 83% of the benefits to the top 1%” when passing tax cuts under the Trump administration.
“What the president is doing is rewarding work, meeting the needs of people using some of that same money that they rewarded the rich with before,” Pelosi said. “We don’t have any resentment against anybody for their success.”
“But as we meet the needs of the American people, it’s important for people to know that our budgets are a statement of our values,” Pelosi said.
She also said certain details of the plan are representative of “our values that people matter.” The House speaker described the plan as being “for the people” and “fiscally responsible” as investments in the proposal “bring money to the treasury.”
Pelosi said funding education across various stages of people’s lives is one the best ways for the Treasury to receive money in the long term.
“We’re on a better path for the people,” Pelosi said.
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