House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) on Thursday struck back at the argument that worker bonuses due to the Republican tax reform law are just "crumbs."
That was the word his Democratic counterpart, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), used when she dismissed the benefits that companies have given workers after the tax overhaul became law last month.
Speaking to MSNBC's Ali Velshi in Davos, Switzerland, McCarthy said that signs of economic dynamism such as the stock market and worker bonuses matter a great deal.
"All those bonuses—I mean, I know some people think they're crumbs," McCarthy said. "No, $1,000, to anybody or to me or to a constituent, that's a lot of money."
Earlier on Thursday, Pelosi reiterated her prior contention that worker bonuses are simply crumbs while wealthy "fat cats" are getting much richer.
"There's a cartoon that I just love," Pelosi said a town hall event. "There's a little mouse trap who's got a little piece of cheese on there, and there's a mouse about to take it and that's called the middle class … And around it are fat cats."
"You get this little thing and we get this big bonanza," she added. "You get the crumb, we get the banquet."
McCarthy presented a very different image of how he has seen people respond to the tax reform law.
"People have come up to me and said, 'Oh, my gosh, I got a raise.' It's because of the withholding limits, they're actually getting more money in their paycheck," he said.
McCarthy also pushed back on Velshi's point that America's economic performance is consistent with that of other countries and is not the result of the Trump administration's actions.
"We have the largest economy in the world; I think we have a real say on where the world goes," he said. "I think America coming back with three percent growth is huge. I think that does change the world."