WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted at her year-end press conference today that the Republican tax reform bill just passed by both houses would come back to attack the GOP like Frankenstein.
“They said that this is going to be simplicity; they were going to have — instead of seven brackets they’d go down to four. Well, they’re at seven. So, the simplicity isn’t there,” she said. “They said you could send it in on a postcard; well, it would have to be a very large postcard because — I don’t know why they think that’s a selling point — but it isn’t a fact.”
Pelosi called passage of the tax bill “only part of an interesting year.”
“They’re taking great credit for this accomplishment,” she said. “Well, I call it a Pyrrhic victory because it’s …Frankenstein. And anybody who is familiar with Frankenstein knows that it was a creation — a monster that was created. You know the ending of Mary Shelley’s story? The monster comes back to destroy.”
Still, Pelosi took umbrage when a reporter said she was making predictions about Republicans losing 2018. “Did I say that they were going to lose the House? I didn’t think I talked politics here,” she said. “I said that they’re acting as if they’re losing Congress because they’re taking all — they’re stealing the silver. They’re taking all the valuables out of the house right away. You’ll see more of it — ‘we’ve got to get this done.’ Because they’ve got, shall we say, a donor-based value system… I said they’re acting like people who know that their power is short-lived.”
The House Dem leader said she doesn’t “place a whole lot of confidence in all of these double-digit polls” that give Democrats a solid advantage in a generic congressional ballot, which is currently at a 13-point lead in the Real Clear Politics polling average. “The most recent one was — yesterday was at 16 or 18 points? 18 points — Democrat or Republican. I’ll take half of that, nine. That’s enough to win the Congress. But most of them are — I think every poll now is double-digit that people would vote for a Democrat over a Republican.”
“But this is not — this isn’t about politics. We don’t come here to do politics; we come here to make things better for the American people,” she insisted, adding soon after that “this is really a big opening — the door is open. The president’s numbers are in the 30s. I think probably his numbers and the support for the tax bill are probably similar and some of his folks are probably, you know, giving him the benefit of the doubt. But most people know that they’re not getting any tax break in this bill.”
Pelosi wrapped up by telling reporters to “please enjoy the holidays. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukah, Kwanza — whatever it is you’re celebrating, just enjoy your friends.”
“Oh, one of my colleagues came out just now as a humanist, so I don’t know what I say to him,” she added.
Pelosi said she told lawmakers to get “renewed in your spirit” over the holiday break and “don’t feel guilty about recreation: it’s part of your re-creation to fight the fight for the American people.”
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