Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) held a joint press conference this afternoon, in which the pair of Democratic leaders railed against President Trump’s budget proposal.
The #TrumpBudget is defined by countless broken promises to the American people. https://t.co/QZ2sHbmf4v
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 11, 2020
Speaker Pelosi’s criticism has zero backbone, because she and her caucus elected not to skip passing a budget from the House of Representatives. This decision to directly avoid legislative responsibility is entirely political. House Democrats cannot agree on budget language, given the ideological divide among Democratic lawmakers in the House. After recent legislative losses to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), mainly the complete failure of impeachment, an internal fight over budget legislation within her own caucus would not be a great look for the “master legislator” from San Francisco.
Speaker Pelosi reprimanded House Republicans, while the GOP controlled the lower chamber, for not passing a budget on account of internal disagreement, so she really has no leg to stand on here:
“Almost five months into the Trump Administration, House Republicans still haven’t met their most basic responsibility to pass a budget,” Pelosi said in June of 2017.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded to the Speaker's complaints:
Madam Speaker, can you point me to the budget you’ve proposed this year so we can compare?
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) February 11, 2020
I’ll wait. https://t.co/3KJwyfmmVX