Before the passage this afternoon of the republican tax plan out of the ways and Means Committee by a vote of 2416. Take you live now to the just outside of the committee oom. This is nancy pelosi from earlier briefing again before the passage of the ways and eans measure this afternoon. Pelosi good afternoon, everyone. Ms. Pelosi good afternoon, everyone. While we are waiting, the next version of house the republicans in the house of representatives will rip off the middle class in our country. In the meantime, it was curious to see President Trump in china. Candidate trump said that whats happening in china trade was the greatest theft in the history of the world. And yesterday, he said, our trade deficit with china, which is huge, is not chinas fault. You can almost hear the leadership of the Chinese Government laughing from china to america. Maybe you can feel it coming through the ground because if you dig a hole here you will reach china. But the reverberation is so appalling, and i said yesterday, while the president is there with his entourage of c. E. O. s cutting deals, the republicans in congress are here giving those same corporations, those same c. E. O. s c. E. O. Led companies a tax break to ship jobs overseas. And thats why its no wonder that gary cohn and ill read it gary cohn said today the most Excited Group out there being big c. E. O. s about our tax plan. Gary cohn, the most Excited Group out there are big c. E. O. s about our tax plan. Representative Chris Collins this week said, my donors are basically saying, get it done or dont ever call me again. Senator Lindsey Graham said this is really the financial ntributions will stop if the tax scam fails he said a tax scam . The g. O. P. Tax scam isnt written for the middle class. Its written for the wealthy donors and corporations shipping jobs overseas. And these three two one advisor to the president , one house member, one Senate Member spoke truth. People are happiest about this are the c. E. O. s but the other truth is 38 million households, middleclass households are facing a republican tax cut. 38 million households. So while they say this is for the middle class, it is not. And now we understand that the Senate Version of the tax plan is reported to have eliminated he in other words, they are keeping the full salt deduction elimination in the plan. So whatever the republicans in the house thought they would throw a few crumbs to some of their members to get them to walk the plank, that is not what is in the senate bill. So its really a stunning thing. It is if they think that this is the bill they must pass in order to stay in power, they have it all wrong. The public is hearing the truth. The public is paying attention. You saw what happened in virginia. They should be worried, very, very worried. And now we are very worried about what they might have in their alternative. Were very proud of the leadership of our ways and means dems led by richie neal of massachusetts. I am pleased to yield to him. Mr. Neal thank you. We are going to be asked in that room in the next two hours to vote on a piece of legislation that weve never seen. And its called the managers amendment. Whats significant about that is that we were presented tentatively with a proposal last thursday or a summary, and then just as we left on friday, we were presented at the time what was alleged to be the chairmans mark. We came in on monday night and began the walkthrough, and we were presented with a 35page amendment that changed the chairmans mark. Today, were being asked to vote on a managers amendment which will fundamentally alter many of the presteps of the argument we have been having in the last three days as they attempt to change it, and im guessing to make for greater harmonization with the senate. Now, at the same time nobody knows whats in the bill. We certainly havent seen it, and members of the republican side, they havent seen it. But were going to that legislation, where there will be a limited opportunity for us to ask questions. What you want to think of i think as you look at the proposal they have, were being asked to repeal the estate tax so that we can pay for getting rid of the tax the sickest in america. The deduction that the sickest people in america take advantage of to pay their health care bills. Yesterday, one of them said, oh, so students can have 200 worth of interest deductions a year . Theres 1 trillion worth of student debt in america. 1 trillion worth of student debt. Today, this morning, hundreds of thousands of people have benefited for the historic tax credit, gone. Were looking at new markets tax credits, gone. Shaving back municipal tax exemptions, gone. And theyre arguing this spurs economic development. You have a chance to put the magnifying glass on which we are about to do and were anxious to see, you can see this was bad on policy and it was bad on process and i think the members in there that are about to cast a vote on this, they have no idea what is in this legislation. And they have been reacting to press accounts i think thats a fair statement every day. The press has reported what i think is the liberties they have taken with accuracy, they come back and revise it. And last night we were told we were going to work until midnight. We left at 7 00 last night. So this piece of legislation could be redrafted and presented today. We have not even seen it yet. Its not done. Ms. Pelosi it appears the new draft whenever it comes appears to be an act of desperation. They clearly didnt have the votes for what they were proposing already. An act of desperation. But its also an act of misrepresentation to the American People. Its a friday afternoon special. Why dont we do it where theres the least opportunity for people to review it . Lets do it very fast, very fast. Speed of light, speed of light, dark of night. What an insult to the intelligence of their own members. What an insult to the intelligence of the American People as they make an assault on the middle class. Any questions . Would you support xtend a spending bill ms. Pelosi i have to see what the spending bill is but i fully intend we wont leave here without the dream act passing, without a daca fix. Ive made that very clear. I wont go into the mistake the president made, what a disservice, a slap in the face to the dreamers. But i think the president does respect, i think President Trump does respect the fact that the dream verse the support of over 80 of the American People and thats why he would be interested in getting something done. Were not kicking the can down o march. [inaudible] ms. Pelosi let me just answer one of your questions, i want to get back to the subject at hand. The Sexual Harassment issue zero tolerance for Sexual Harassment here. We can, each of our houses, pass legislation to call for training , Sexual Harassment training and we intend to do that. In order to change the rules of the congress, it requires we have to pass the house and senate with the same bill. We intend to do that. Our numbers are our members are working very hard in that regard. I believe that will happen very soon. This is a Tipping Point for our society. Including in the congress of the united states. Whats going to happen in the next couple of hours, does this surprise you . You saw what happened with health care where they redid that piece of legislation multiple times, then couldnt pass the thing. Theres a huge difference. Hearings and opportunities for people to weigh in. This is youre doing this without any hearing. These are complicated issues that some members spend a career just trying to master one part of the discipline. Mr. Neal all of a sudden, this vast bill is put before us without an opportunity to even talk about it. You can take, for example, at the estate tax, you could do two weeks of hearings on that, hear from everybody. Not a chance, were just going to do it. You could talk about alternative minimum tax, spend two weeks talking about how we got there, how wed fix it. Thats not whats happening. This is simply an opportunity for one side, without one hear, without one witness, and now without even their own side getting a chance to see the final proposal and were going to act on it . Ms. Pelosi and on top of it all they say, this is just like we did in 1986. It isnt at all. Dont take the American People for fools. This isnt what happened. Thrrn 400 witnesses who testified, 30 hearings, months of deliberation on the legislation, in a burn been in a bipartisan way. So i said theyve taken to senator bradley and to congressman to leader gephardt, theyve taken your names in vain but we wont let that stand. Let me say this as we go into veterans day weekend, whats appalling about their budget, which has set the stage for this atrocity of a tax bill to emerge, is in their budget they call for cutting 1. 5 trillion rom medicare and medicaid. Do they not know or do they not care that over a million veterans are on medicaid . Do they not know that this has a direct impact on the lives of American Veterans . Do they not know . Have a hearing. Find out. But the veterans have come forward and theyre telling their story about how this budget that predicates this tax bill and then will necessitate those cuts is unfair. But whats interesting about it, 1. 5 trillion in tax breaks, a rate of 1. 5 trillion in tax breaks for corporate america, 1. 5 trillion from medicare and medicaid. What a terrible statement and what a very lack of values for the American People and for our veterans. One other question if i can. I think its entirely reasonable, that weve never had a chance to talk about. You need money to do tax reform. Mr. Neal now theres a chance to find out where its going to come from. Ms. Pelosi i thank once again our distinguished Ranking Member on the ways and Means Committee. We look forward to his take on what they put forward. But again, an act of desperation. And who knows, this is the last one. What a shame that theyre putting their members to this, more of a shame theyre putting the middle class to this. At the same time misrepresenting that theyre giving them something when theyre taking i was thinking i have grandchildren, and i thought, gee, i said to my grandchild, im going to give you an allowance. Oh, thats great. But youre going to have to help pay for the mortgage on the house. Plus interest. Its like, what . So really we want the American People to know, clearly they do not want the American People to know. Thats why so much secrecy. Such a short fuse. Because time is their enemy. Thank you all very much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]