House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded today to criticism over her decision to call her chamber back into session to vote tomorrow on a bill that aims to help states avoid making layoffs.
“Why wouldn’t House Republicans want to keep 310,000 teachers, first responders and private sector workers on the job instead of on the unemployment lines?” Pelosi rhetorically asked.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) commented on NBC’s Meet The Press yesterday that the $26 billion measure is another example of Democratic over-spending.
“The American people are screaming at the top of their lungs to Washington, ‘Stop, stop the spending, stop the job-killing policies,’ and yet Democrats in Washington refuse to listen to the American people,” he said.
Pelosi, however, said Boehner is ignoring the fact that the legislation would not add to the nation’s debt, and accused her GOP counterpart of “opposing a fully paid-for jobs bill that reduces the deficit and keeps teachers in the classroom and police officers on the beat.”
The House will convene tomorrow at 10:00 am, with a final vote on the bill expected to take place in the afternoon.