Pelosi Parts With Obama Over Bush Tax Cuts

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday that she wants to see the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy repealed "as early as possible."

The call for repeal may place Pelosi at odds with President-elect Obama; during the campaign he called for repeal but his aides have since indicated that due to the deteriorating economy, he was leaning towards allowing them to expire.

Asked again after her press conference about the tax cuts, the Speaker said she is "urging repeal."

Pelosi noted that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the tax cuts are the biggest contributor to the ballooning deficit. "Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans repealed," she said.

Pelosi said she has yet to settle on a specific threshold as to what constitutes wealthy, but said that the $250,000 income range was being considered.

First, though, the House will take up the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act tomorrow, aimed at assuring women equal pay for equal work.

Next week, it's children's health insurance. The House will vote on a package to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which President Bush vetoed twice last session.

The stimulus package will then take priority. "We will have a bill before the President's recess," she said. "If we don't have a bill, there will be no President's recess."

House and Senate Republicans -- as well as Democratic committee chairs -- have been urging that the stimulus bill go through the normal committee process. Pelosi said that it would.

More broadly, she said that she told the Democratic caucus this morning that they need to rethink the way they approach legislation now that they are no longer in the minority or facing a Republican president. "We're thinking a political way about this," she said. "We have to think differently about this...We've been so used to an uphill fight but now we have arrived."

Claiming that polls show some 79 percent of the American people are behind Obama's stimulus plan, the Congress should "move quickly -- not hastily, but quickly," she said.

As her press conference ended, she was asked if she had any parting words for the president. She paused as the reporters laughed and finally said, "I have some. And I think I'll share them with the president privately."

Comments

[LeftLeaner]

Nancy, thank you, for standing up against this incessant tax break mentality.

It seems to cross party lines - could powerful lobbying influences have anything to do with it?

[rkimball]

franks offering financial advise to obama! this right after he told the nation that fannie mack was sound.

[sunny555]

This post is for the blogger FoodTube, who seems to be stalking me and has decided, without ever meeting me or knowing much about me at all, that I am not a "positive force for humanity." I also don't appreciate your suggestion to read the New Testa ment and most of all, that I "SHO OT" myself." How did you get so nasty, and dare I say, jealous?

You can take your "force for humanity" and shove it up your tight, self-righteous as*. Thank you :)

[sunny555]

P.S Please see page 8 or 9 of this blog. I have responded to all of your ridiculous questions, and have even added a few insights of my own! Just thought you might want to know....

[Joeblue]

Obama needs to listen to Thom Hartman.

[Oldchef]

I believe Obama wants to repeal the tax cuts on the wealthiest 2% of our country, but is afraid the Republicans will stall on that and obstruct the passage of his stimulus plan. I think if he appeals to the public to pressure their representatives, the repeal would pass, but the fight will get messy, Boehner will weep and moan, Mitchell will twitch and mumble about socialists, and his plan will be delayed for months which Obama if afraid will drive the nation deeper in the hole.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

PE Obama made the repeal of tax cuts for the wealthy a center piece of his campaign, even when everyone was aware the economy was in the toilet.Those tax cuts to the wealthy weren't trickling down any further than from their savings account to their checking account,a small percentage as a matter of fact,just enough to live like pigs.I'm speaking of the uber wealthy,not the majority of people making over 250k that voted for Obama.They are the ones that earn a good living and are grateful for the opportunity and are more than happy to pay their fair share.There are even some very wealthy people that feel the same way.Why has Obama taken this centerpiece that would help pay for this enormous program he envisions and cast it aside?

I thought we were on a different path,we were going to stop corporations from going offshore to evade taxation.We were going to give unions a fighting chance.Where is talk about healthcare?

It's disingenuous to to say we didn't know how terrible a shape our economy was in,lots of people knew it.These financial people have been hiding the wreckage from the general public for years,using accounting methods and legislation to achieve their goal of staying off page one.Yet there were many economic guru's who were shouting out for years to anyone that would listen exactly what was happening.To imply that this was a surprise development is absurd.

[SiouxSayer]

.

I think the Principal is going to start pulling the 'mavericky', school kids into his office very soon....whereupon he will deliver a speech direct from the Board of Education.
NOW is the time when the Dems find a spine? They'll let BushCo run rough-shod over this Republic, but they're going to really get their collective act in gear for the 'that one'? I'll tell ya'...a a liberal Dem,...these Dems in the new Admin are just plain nutz......

Enjoy the bread and soup lines, folks......

[escrow7]

We can thank GW Bush for the bread and soup lines....Everything he has touched has failed. you people just handed our country over to him. What did you expect for the last 8 years...Success? You must be plain nutz...
http://www.thirdeyechronicles.com

[brenner21]

Yes we can! (what ... ?)

[TerrapinCB]

Why is O backing down already on the repeal of the tax cuts for the rich? We all know the tinkle on down tax cuts don't help anybody but those that received them. The recipients of those Bushit tax cuts sure aren't doing to badly at the moment, compared to the rest of the US, Inc.

Please O, stand up for what you told us you would do. Please don't take the place of Reid and Pelosi and cave in to the R's before you even take office.

[CharlottesvilleVA]

I am so sick and tired of Nancy Pelosi. Since she became Speaker, she has kow towed to George W. Bush and his administration at almost every turn. She did NOTHING to intervene against torture, she did NOTHING to call the administration on the carpet about Katrina, she had her party lay down and let Bush run roughshod over the country.

Now that there's a progressive president with whom she's likely to agree 90% of the time, she's suddenly talking tough and making demands? Where was that determination when Bush was having his way with the world?

In short, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are stone cold cowards. NOT what we need leading Congress right now.

So it looks like the caucus Obama needs to worry about is the Democrats. Gee, who knew? If she continues along this path, perhaps Obama needs to take to his bully pulpit and call her out. Her district elected her, but America elected Obama.

[KarenDuncan]

I am sick of politicians who make promises to get elected and then do not keep them! I ask that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hold President-elect Obama to keep his promise to raise taxes on the wealthiest, repeal the tax breaks to the wealthiest immedately and decrease taxes on the balance of Americans.

Accountability is essential.

Karen A Duncan

[DontBeFoolish]

Don't be afraid to try something new politicians, what you were doing DOES NOT WORK.

[HHW]

I think Pelosi's comments (like Feinstein's petulance about Panetta) simply reflect her trying to make sure that Obama is not the only player in DC (which he basically is right now, having won a mandate in the election and picking up an enormous approval rating (what, three times that of Congress??)). Her comments make little economic sense at present - essentially, a move upwards in income tax rates would offset the stimulus and place the economy in a bigger hole, and of course, there are no capital gains to tax. Talking about bailing out failed auto companies that make cars that Americans don't like to buy is a sign of the times : we need a shorter-term stabilization and recovery to happen before addressing the longer-term issues of the budget and fairness/justice.

By the way, anybody notice that Americans making more than $200,000 voted for Obama over McCain despite the reversion back to Clinton-era tax rates ? Democrats are the new party of the rich in America.

[averagemaninthecountry]

Democratic mantra is protect the little guy/
Tort lawyers protect the little guy and want more liberal, expansive and easier legal environment to protect the little guy.
The Democratic Party has become their party and now sings their tune.
We have now privatized labor, environmental and civil right policy in addition to personal property damage.
Like Privateers, tort lawyers have become wealthy.

[ATruthBeKnown]

Harry and Nancy sitting in a tree couldn't find their way out 'tween you and me.

I say we make sure they know their way out when they come up for re-election. They are part of the problem in Congress.

As long as BO continues to make the choices he is making I don't care about Nancy/Reid honeymoon. Again these old farts got us in this mess. Mooks

[love5pets]

Two of the most ineffective, Democratic embarrassments:

Pelosi and Reid...put them out to pasture.

[Drummaboy]

Pelosi and whoever else wants to act crazy right now better GET IN LINE...quickly

I can give them 3 million reasons(lost jobs) why this is not the time to play games.

We don't care if you don't like it...you have done nothing creative to this point...let the 1 person who is trying to do something new and creative get what he wants....

I mean he's only the President! (In 11 glorious days!!

Get 'Er Done!

[Terypat]

I hope the members of congress and senate, especially those who are up for reelection 2010, keep in mind that the country's low to middle class are following these proceedings closely. Any member who displays unwarrented opposition and scrutiny should think of their own future along with those of the voters who put them there.