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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Pelosi anticipates bipartisan support for coronavirus bill in U.S. House

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Pelosi anticipates bipartisan support for coronavirus bill in U.S. House
Pelosi anticipates bipartisan support for coronavirus bill in U.S. House

The Democratic Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday said she expects "a strong bipartisan vote" on a $2 trillion rescue package, which Nancy Pelosi credited Democrats for winning worker-friendly concessions from the Republican-controlled Senate.

"We take some pride," Pelosi said, "that Congressional Democrats in the Senate and in the House were able to flip this over from [a] corporate, Republican, trickle-down version, to bubble-up, workers-first, families-first." The U.S. Senate's unanimous passage of a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill sent the unprecedented economic legislation to the House of Representatives, whose Democratic leaders hope to pass it on Friday.

The package is intended to flood the country with cash in a bid to stem the crushing impact on the economy of an intensifying epidemic that has killed more than 900 people in the United States and infected at least 60,000.

The House speaker cited a conversation with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who encouraged her to spend whatever it takes to overcome the crushing effects of the pandemic.

"The Chairman of the Fed, Mr. Powell, said to me, 'the interest rates are as low as they'll ever be.

Think big," Pelosi said.

She also compared the unprecedented cost of the legislation to a highly-partisan, Republican-led tax reform bill that passed in 2017.

"What we did, last night, and what we will do tomorrow, two trillion dollars, is about the cost of the tax scam that Republicans foisted on the nation to give 83 percent of the benefits to the top one percent," Pelosi said.

She called "every dollar" spent to combat the novel coronavirus an "investment in the lives and the livelihood of the American people." Thursday marked Pelosi's 80th birthday, which she said she was not celebrating "until I can hug my grand-babies."

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