House Minority Leader and former speaker Nancy Pelosi says that the Republican tax bill, “with stiff competition by some of the other things they have put forth, is the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress.”


That is a tall order. A quick search of the history of the United States Congress reveals that Congress has passed:

the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798


the Indian Removal Act in 1830


the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850


Public Law 503, codifying President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 authorizing the internment of Japanese, German, and Italian Americans, in 1942


the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition), the Espionage Act, and the Selective Service Act, and entered World War I, all in 1917


the Universal Military Training and Service Act in 1951


the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1964


the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001 (Pelosi voted for this)


the National Defense Authorization Act, featuring indefinite detention, in 2011 (Pelosi voted for this)

I don’t think the current tax bill is even in the running.


I suppose hyperbole is to be expected in Congress. But this was said on the floor of the House by the former speaker, so presumably it was carefully thought out. I do hope that Leader Pelosi will be granted permission to revise and extend her remarks.