House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Thursday continued to slam the recently passed Republican tax reform bill, calling the wage increases and bonuses "crumbs" during her weekly press briefing.
Walmart was the most recent company to announce a wage increase and bonuses as a result of the sweeping legislation, which included a slashing of the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent.
"A number of companies are attributing the tax bill for being able to give higher wages to their employees as well as being able to give a number of bonuses to their employees. How do you respond to that?" a reporter asked.
Pelosi appeared to be talking about AT&T when she responded by downplaying the bonuses and saying that it was already part of a union contract. She went on to say that the same firm told their employees that they would be laying off 1,500 people and that if they wanted to save their jobs then they would have to work 32 hours per week.
"In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic. It's so pathetic," Pelosi said.
"I would hope that with their big advantage of bringing money home at a very low rate that they would invest in infrastructure and things, but our experience has been that they will do dividends, do stock buybacks, and things like that. I think it's insignificant," Pelosi added.
This is not the first time that Pelosi has been critical of the Republican tax reform legislation. Pelosi expressed dramatic concern last month about the tax bill, calling it "Armageddon" during a press briefing.
"The debate on health care is life, death. This is Armageddon," Pelosi said. "This is a very big deal, because you know why? There's really a very hard way to come back from this."
She's also called it the worst legislation in the history of Congress.
The Washington Free Beacon sent a request for comment to Pelosi's office and did not receive a response.
UPDATED 5:17 P.M.: This was updated to note the lack of any response by Pelosi's office.