Nancy Pelosi's Tax Speech: Pitching Values to the Galleries

Nancy Pelosi

Speaking on the floor of Congress against the Republican tax reform bill, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the bill, which awaits passage sometime today, as a "GOP tax scam" and a "brazen con job." The bill does, indeed, offer massive tax breaks to the very rich and to large corporations, including foreign corporations, while driving up the budget deficit. There is controversy about whether the bill will raise or lower taxes on lower and middle-class Americans. There is also controversy about whether the bill would stimulate massive growth. Fox News correctly noted that reactions to the bill have been very polarized. I'm not an economist and give no opinion about that one way or another about those latter issues, although I found a good article in the business magazine Forbes.

In her speech, Ms. Pelosi raised larger value questions: instead of focusing exclusively on nuts-and-bolts details, Pelosi said things like this:

Mr. Speaker, today, we choose what kind of country America will be. One that champions the ladders of opportunity for all, or one that reinforces the power of the wealthiest and well-connected. 

and, nearing her conclusion:


It does violence to the vision of our founders, it disrespects the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform who are  large part of our middle-class and to whom we owe a future worthy of their sacrifice, and it betrays the future and betrays the aspirations of our children. 

Ms. Pelosi quoted the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who, complaining about the harms to the working poor, called the bill "simply unconscionable." This appealed to a moral sense while citing the bishops' authority.


At the end, Pelosi reaffirmed values:

It demands--it morally demands--a "no" vote from every Member of this House of the people.

Ms. Pelosi surely knew that her voice would influence no votes. Her arguments would convince no Republicans to change his or her vote. Instead, she was reaching out to the larger audience, firing a salvo in what will likely be a long public dispute.


What lessons can we draw about public speaking? First, Pelosi spoke to the larger audience, not just the group in the room. (As President Donald Trump himself had done in an earlier tax reform speech.) Her very strong language--"tax scam" and "brazen con job"--was aimed at the general public, not the Congress. Second, she focused on values, using facts and figures only to aim at value questions. This drew attention away from esoteric issues that few of us really understand, and toward larger questions about the role of Congress in setting policy.


Official US Congress photo

Here's my follow-up post.