House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said on Wednesday that the Republicans' budget proposal has the potential to cause violence by putting money into the military instead of social welfare.
The former speaker of the House made her comments Wednesday at a rally for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in a clip posted by the NTK Network. She said that her Republican counterparts were not concerned with security in their approach to the federal budget.
"This is supposed to be a budget that prevents the spread of violence," Pelosi said. "Instead, it stirs it up."
She strongly supported more money for health care and education, as opposed to the military. AFT is a teachers' union that annually donates millions to Democrats, and it has strongly opposed President Donald Trump's administration.
"A budget that says we do not measure the strength of our country in the health, education, and well-being of our people, we only measure it in military might," Pelosi said. "You know what that does? It requires more military might. It takes us down the wrong path."
Pelosi voiced support for national defense but said that it is not actually Republicans' goal.
"We take an oath to protect and defend whatever the mission is, whatever we need, as President Kennedy said, 'Fight any foe,'" Pelosi said. "But that's not the point of this," she added, arguing that it stirs up violence.
Her comments come a month after she blamed the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) on Republicans, despite the shooter supporting left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). The day after her Republican colleague was shot, Pelosi said that the Republican Party's "politics of personal destruction" helped caused the shooting.