Nancy Pelosi Drops By SF Central Subway Project; Talks Up Middle Class Jumpstart Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) dropped by the Central Subway construction project at San Francisco's Moscone Center Tuesday to campaign for the election of House Democrats.
House Minority Leader Pelosi used the ongoing transportation project to leverage the Democrats' Middle-Class Jumpstart campaign to regain control of the House in November. She spoke at the future site of the subway's Moscone Center Station.
"Right now there's a stalling of the middle class, because there's a stalling of these kinds of initiatives. We want to remove that," Pelosi said.
She added that Republicans have blocked long-term investments on the nation's infrastructure, including projects like the Central Subway "that put Americans to work".
Local critics from across the political spectrum have raised questions about the need to spend billions of dollars to build a 1.7-mile subway line.
San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee said the benefits are enormous and not just for transit riders.
"This project has been one of the critical foundations for why today, a few years later, we can boast about a 4.5 [percent] unemployment rate in San Francisco," he said.
The Democrats' Middle-Class Jumpstart campaign includes a minimum-wage bill, a repeal of an overseas tax break and equal pay for equal work.