Paul Ryan Slams Nancy Pelosi For Calling New Employee Bonuses ‘Crumbs’

On Thursday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) appeared on C-SPAN with host Steve Scully.

When Scully asked Ryan about House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) calling the bonuses being given to corporate employees “crumbs,” the Speaker offered a pointed response:

Yeah, I’m sad and surprised she said that. To somebody working at Walmart at the starting wage — [we] just went from $9 and hour to $11 an hour — I don’t think that’s crumbs. To a person, you know, working paycheck-to-paycheck, just got a $1,000 bonus — that’s not crumbs. I mean 200,000 workers at AT&T got a $1,000 bonus. Comcast — just one company — is investing $50 billion in America, in jobs, in expanding across the country. This isn’t crumbs.

The additional maternity leave at Walmart, the higher 401k plans. There’s a business in Stevens Point — a small assisted living center in Stevens Point just announced bonuses to their employees. These aren’t crumbs. You gotta remember more than half of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, and so when they get something like a $1,000 bonus at Christmastime because of this tax law, that’s [hardly crumbs].