In an interview with Lawrence O’Donnell on “The Last Word”, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi lambasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and republicans for their cavalier attitude to dealing with the coronavirus.

Pelosi recalled that laughed off the May coronavirus relief package passed by the House by saying “OK, let’s have all the states declare bankruptcy.”

She also noted that Mnuchin said Wednesday, “We don’t want to bail out pensions, we don’t want bad practices,” in a completely unironic way given Trump’s six business bankruptcies and the $3 trillion deficit racked up by the current Administration.  The pension bail out would have assisted state pension funds who lost hundreds of billions of dollars in investments due to the stock market crash.

Pelosi said Democrats proposed that the relief bill remove a $150 billion tax break for corporate operating losses for the wealthiest Americans and include an earned income tax credit.  Mnuchin rejected the idea, insisting that the $150 billion in tax credits for net operating losses be included in the new HEROES bill after a similar measure was included in the CARES Act passed in March.  Mnuchin also rejected the earned income tax credit for working Americans.

“It’s not about the dollar amount,” Pelosi said.  “It’s about the funding it will go to, and if it’s underwriting tax cuts for the wealthiest while depriving it to the working–working–low income people, you see the unfairness of it all.”

Pelosi stressed that Democrats all want an agreement that will be safer through funding coronavirus research, as well as bigger and retroactive to help families in need.  “In order to solve the problem, we have to crush the virus,” Pelosi said, “and [republicans] still cannot face that reality.  They laugh it off.”

Pelosi noted a provision in the republican proposal that requires essential workers to go to work or not be eligible for unemployment benefits.  However, if the employer does not take precautions to protect workers from spreading the coronavirus, the republican measure blocks legal action by workers or fines from workplace safety agencies.  Pelosi said Democrats want a strong OSHA standard, but the “McConnell standard” will not allow for worker safety.

Pelosi also noted that a Democrats demand a provision to provide for child care for workers who return to their jobs, particularly front-line and essential workers, something republicans refuse to negotiate.