Dems Won't Rule Out Tax Hike On Wealthy

Pelosi Says Democrats Looking For Way To Pay For Middle-Class Tax Cuts

(CBS/AP)  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families.

Asked in a CBS News interview if Americans making over half-a-million dollars a year may see their taxes go up, Pelosi said: "They may. But as I say, that's not where we'll begin. It's an option, it's not a first resort.

Pelosi spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending.

"As we review what we get from ... collecting our taxes and reducing waste, fraud and abuse, investing in education and in initiatives which will bring money into the Treasury, it may be that (repealing) tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be more important to the American people than ignoring the educational and health needs of America's children," Pelosi, D-Calif., told Bob Schieffer in an interview on Face The Nation aired Sunday.

A budget rule, known as the pay-as-you-go rule, that was approved by the Democratic-run House on Friday requires that tax cuts have corresponding cuts in government spending or tax increases elsewhere to pay for them.

"What we're saying is Democrats propose tax cuts for middle-income families. And we want to have 'pay-go,' no new deficit spending. We're not going to start with repealing tax cuts, but they certainly are not off the table for people making over half a million dollars a year," Pelosi said.

The Senate's top Republican said most GOP senators oppose this budget rule because "it almost guarantees that the majority, if it enacts it, will try to raise taxes."

"The last thing we need to do is to be raising taxes in this country, and 'pay-go' is the first step toward raising taxes," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News. "I think there will be very few, if any, Republicans who will support raising taxes.

Last week, the president challenged Democrats to join him in balancing the budget within five years and urged them to cut thousands of pet projects from future spending bills.

"The war in Iraq and the tax cuts for the highest end people in our country makes it difficult and challenging to balance the budget, there's no question. But we'd like to see what the president's version of a balanced budget is. He's never sent one to the Congress," Pelosi said.

Asked if it's possible to balance the budget without raising taxes, Pelosi, said, "If the president's willing to join with us to fight waste, fraud, and abuse, collecting the taxes, closing the loopholes, we can start there. … What we'd like to do is come to the table as I say, put all our priorities on the table."

Mr. Bush's spending decisions also came under fire from the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

"How can you ever expect to get to a balanced budget if you're spending $100 billion a year on Iraq borrowing the money to do it, if you're giving $50 billion a year in tax cuts to people who make over a million bucks a year and paying for that with borrowed money?" Obey said.

Elsewhere on the legislative agenda, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is getting ready to investigate suspected government fraud, particularly in federal contracts in Iraq and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina struck. But Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is not preparing to hand out subpoenas at first.

"I don't think you issue a subpoena first. You negotiate, and you try to get the information you need," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the new chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, is seeking GOP cooperation in making inroads on bloated tax laws.

"We have to look at all of the deductions, all of the credits, and to come up with what we think we can do," he said. "Is it going to be difficult? You bet your life."

Rangel, Waxman and Obey appeared on "This Week" on ABC.

[pandoraboxed]

It's about time!

This administration is the worst in American History.

[clestes-2009]

Get rid of the Iraq fiasco and you will see a balanced budget.

She speaks as though she were the president, you go girl!!

[grumpas]

You tell them jh6379! I am sick to death of all the give aways to the rich! They can pay their own taxes I am sick of paying mine and their's too! Right after Iraq the tax cut's to the rich should be on the chopping block!

[pandoraboxed]

She speaks as though she were the president, you go girl!!
Posted by ncolsens


If bush & *** went hunting, *** shot bush & then *** had a heart attack she would be the president!

hey it could happen?

[pandoraboxed]

*** you can't use the word d i c k ?

[frankly6]

It's time to stop borrowing our way into oblivion.

[josephxmas]

Can I detect some reality returning to the American government and the return of true Democracy?!

[rmsdm4]

Wow it is actaully amazing how many people think that the democrats and republicans in the house and senate(rich people) will acutally raise taxes on themselves.

[mswolfestock]

The middle class has been carrying the tax burden for way, way too long. We should abolish all tax cuts for the wealthy, especially those who have become excessively weathy from the oil industry. While all of us working people struggled to pay for over-priced gasoline, the oil company execs were literally rolling in dough, yours and mine. RE: the Iraq War money situation, they definitely need to audit Halliburton. VP Cheney has been getting filthy rich from his "former employer" at the expense of young Americans. Let's turn off this source of Blood Money. Lower- and middle-class kids are dying and Halliburton is laughing all the way to the bank. I consider this to be a crime against humanity. If Bush wants to send young kids to war, the rich should be paying for it, and the rich should start sending THEIR kids into the military, too. Remember the old protest song by Country Joe and the Fish? "Now come on Wall Street, don't be slow - man, this is War a go-go . . . and it's one, two, three, WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?"

[jhindson1]

A tax hike? - sounds like more republican spin. In republican terms it is really the end of the tax break *surge* for the rich.

[changeit4]

George W. Bush says he wants a balanced budget?

Why now?

Surely he hasn't had an epiphany and awakened to realize deficit spending is a bad idea.

Definitely no one convinced him he is wrong about foreign policy and that you can't indefinitely finance a war, all the while saying the economy here at home is fine.

Do we smell fear on Pennsylvania Avenue? Does he know that we're all watching him and we sent people to Congress to keep him in check?

Nah, probably just talk to save his own tail. In a couple of years when there's still a mess to clean up (read: deficit, war in Iraq) he'll try playing the "But-I-said-we-needed-a-balanced-budget-two-years-ago" card to save face for his party.

The world is on to you, W.

To the Democrats in Congress: All we ask is that you do your best for the whole of the country. No one has tried for quite some time. Your best will be far better than the accosting we've taken at the hands of the GOP.

[getcentered]

Go Dems!

It's time to close the offshore tax loopholes.
It's time to bring fairness back into our tax law.

[mjv2944]

Time to write the tax laws on an 81/2x11 sheet of paper. No one seems to mention the corporate tax breaks and subsidies. Bring back the middle class, the neocons threw it away. Stay in the middle dems.

[jn122736]

Ever since the Reagan administration Republicans have been cutting taxes and borrowing to pay for them, then accusing the Democrats of raising taxes when they attempt to pay for the Republican borrowing.

The Republicans borrow instead of cutting social spending enough to cover the tax cuts because they know they would be voted out of power immediately. The democrats raise taxes in order to pay the debts for the same reason. This is more than a coincidence, it is a political tactic.

This administration has brought the game to new heights by cutting taxes in time of war and running up the national debt by borrowing to cover their actions. Dumping both the debt and the Iraq problem into the democrats laps so they can accuse them of%u2026CUT AND RUN%u2026&%u2026 TAX AND SPEND.

[bluestardad]

Stop the war in Iraq there is 2 billion a week!

[bluestardad]

Now let me know your next problem and we can settle that one too!

[nynative1340]

Bring on the tax hikes! We know the rich aren't paying their fair share. They certainly aren't contributing their flesh and blood to the war in Iraq.

[gunnerv1]

Just who exacly is the rich in the democrats eyes? would you please define this. Is it the single taxpayer who makes $50,000.? Is it the Married couple that make less than $100,000. Or is it anybody thats not on the welfare rolls?

[energyecon]

I've never heard such a whiny bunch of crybabies in all my life - hell, my two year old is tougher than the so-called conservatives who are boo-hooing and crying wolf before any proposal is actually defined!

And this is after years of advocating throwing it all on the national credit card, which is nothing more than a sleazy attempt to pick the pockets of our children and grand-children... the "tax cuts" of the whining right are a huge shell game where the burdens are shifted to local municipalities (how are those property taxes folks?), working Americans and our kids.

What the Democrats are proposing is PAY AS YOU GO, what all of us do except for the right wing vote pimps in Washington, DC!

[numb3rmonkey]

The President urges to cut thousands of pet projects. Why doesn't he challenge himself and cut his little pet project over there in Iraq?

Dem's won't rule it out because it is a certainty, so get it over with and raise 'em NOW!!

And the last thing we need to do is to be listening to elephants whine about it.

[randalds]

The misnomer here is calling it a tax increase, when it'll most likely amount to nothing more then a roll back of the huge tax cuts Bush awarded the very rich. Calling it a tax increase is smoke and mirrors from the right wing wealthy who have been skating on the backs of the middle and lowers classes for the past 6 years.

[sjc_1]

And you think Borrow and Spend from the Republicans under Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. is better? Borrow and Spend makes it look good for now and is MUCH worse later on. At least taxation is a real time event and does not kick the problem down the road for someone else like the Democrats to figure out how to fix. The present situation is a lot like 1981-1987m which ended in the biggest stock market crash since 1929. This is where we are headed between 2001-2007 except MUCH worse. It is up to us to fix them mess the Repugnicans have made. Call yourself patriotic, while you sell the country and its children down the river.

[luvny-2009]

Repealing tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year...

I'd say that's a good start...

If you're giving $50 billion a year in tax cuts to people who make over a million bucks a year and paying for that with borrowed money...

That's just plain nuts and they got away with it!

[observantx]

Spendthrift Leader gave away the Clinton surplus to his buddies and cronies in record time through the lopsided tax cuts he and his runbberstamp Congress rammed through over the Democrat objections.

I say we get it all back, AND charge them interest for the loan. I work full time and have a part time job. My spouse works full time. We get taxed to the max and the silver spoon crowd gets a free ride with my money. ENOUGH!

[luvny-2009]

ObservantX - BINGO
As the Reps say the rich get richers and poor get poorer, I am so sick of the silver platers that have been given to the rich since that stupid moron was GIVEN that office. He and his Corp buddies screwed us all! Jail the SOB!

[specimenfred]

TIME TO PAY FOR ALL YOUR LIES REPUKES

[specimenfred]

PROPAGANDA DOESN'T WORK REPUBS, YOU ARE TOTAL TRAITORS TO AMERICANS

[jmagarotz]

Yes, Yes, Rape the Rich! Destroy these EVIL corporations. Take their money and redestribute it among the Poor and Oppressed! That'll teach em. Then the Glorious Victorious Democrats can place the citizenry under a real police state, unlike the imaginary one they think Bush has us under. WAKE UP AND THINK PEOPLE! I never got a job from a poor man, and you didn't either! P.T. Barnum was right, There's a sucker born every minute! Y'all deserve what you're going to get and once you find your objective ain't what you dreamed it to be, THERE WILL BE NO WAY BACK!

[specimenfred]

LYING REPUBS BUSY BLAMING CLINTON, LOL! WHAT CENTURY IS IT YA STUPID REPUKES?

[specimenfred]

HOW'S YOUR $2 TRILLION CIVIL WAR GOING YA STUPID LYING REPUKES?

[bellal-2009]

who have been skating on the backs of the middle and lowers classes for the past 6 years.
Posted by RandalDS at 12:36 PM : Jan 08, 2007

I agree with you Randal, tax the rich and slash and burn useless redundant govt. programs. The middle and lower middle have been carrying the weight. Actually being poor is a better option for qualifying for govt. aid. The lower middle class deserve a medal for holding on through this and not going bancrupt.

[bellal-2009]

CUT OR ABOLISH MIDDLE CLASS TAXES. Let us put some money back into the economy if that works so well.

[thgdriver]

All I could hear during the Democratic campaign was how Bush gave his rich friends a tax cut and how the Democrats would fix it as soon as they got in office. What a crock of shi!

Now all I hear is--- well, we wont rule it out, we are thinking about it, We're not going to start with repealing tax cuts, we will pursue other monies owed by others, "They may. But as I say, that's not where we'll begin. It's an option, it's not a first resort.

To all you fools who bought into that Democratic
shi! I say, well, I can't say, I am laughing too hard!

[randalds]

I agree with you Randal, tax the rich and slash and burn useless redundant govt. programs. The middle and lower middle have been carrying the weight. Actually being poor is a better option for qualifying for govt. aid. The lower middle class deserve a medal for holding on through this and not going bancrupt.
Posted by bellaL at 01:01 PM : Jan 08, 2007

There do seem to be some things we agree on Bella. The way to stimulate the economy through tax cuts (though I think it's effect is somewhat limited and over stated) is to do it through tax cuts for the middle-class, not through the rich. It is the middle-class that drives and holds the American economy together, not the rich. This is the reason the upper-class wants to see them disappear. They want it to go back to the "good old days" of the late 1800's when they ruled America, not the middle-class.

[webdepot]

yurpallid at 01:00 PM : Jan 08, 2007;
"You should learn from degreed profesionals first, before spouting forth some non-sense from a Katie Couric interview"
Hmmm.. over 96% of the Congress, Senate, and advisors to all, are "degreed professionals".. and thats why nobady agrees on anything.. because you all think you're smarter than the rest of us.. Economics is quite simple.. if you make two thousand dollars a month, you can't go for a very long long time if you spend three thousand dollars a month. Is that really too difficult for you Repubs to understand.

Posted by bellaL at 01:01 PM : Jan 08, 2007;
"The lower middle class deserve a medal for holding on through this and not going bancrupt."

Unfortunately, in another giveaway to the banks (who already charge up to 33% interest on credit cards), the Repubs virtually did away with chapter 7.. only chapter 13 still remains for a great majority of those seeking relief. Bankruptcy has been taken away as an option for too many.

[bellal-2009]

Half million, why not start with over 150K? I guess someone making 450K may be strapped for cash with a tax increase.

[webdepot]

thgdriver.... you're an idiot... your entire post does not make a lick of sense..

[bellal-2009]

Does Nancy Pelosi realize there are people out here who make ends meet at about 40K, and contribute to charity, pay 8K in federal taxes, volunteer, contribute to retirement funds, pride themselves in self sufficiency, and are good citizens. How about you start with eliminating their taxes, Nancy.

[thgdriver]

webdepot

Can we disagree without the name calling?

[specimenfred]

FIND THOSE WMD YET YA LYING TRICKLE DOWN TRAITORS?

[specimenfred]

RED STATES = WELFARE STATES, ONLY 2 CONTRIBUTE MORE TO FEDS THAN THEY TAKE IN.

GET A JOB AND AN EDUCATION GOOBERS

[thgdriver]

The rich in this country are not going to tax the rich. Wait for those tax increases on the rich in one hand and fill your other hand with the Democratic bull shi! See what one fills up quickest.

[agnim]

1,200 Peace Activists Make Giant "Impeach" Sign on Beach
And in San Francisco, about 1,200 peace activists gathered on the beach Saturday to spell out the word Impeach in giant letters visible from the sky. The protest occurred in the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Advocates of impeaching President Bush have criticized Pelosi for saying that impeachment is off the table.

[thgdriver]

1,200 Peace Activists Make Giant "Impeach" Sign on Beach
And in San Francisco, about 1,200 peace activists gathered on the beach Saturday to spell out the word Impeach in giant letters visible from the sky.

They should all get a job and help with my tax burden.

[bellal-2009]

Do you work 40 hours a week, 50 hours?,How about food , Name brands or Generics?
Posted by yurpallid at 01:35 PM : Jan 08, 2007

Good point yrpallid, maybe I could start working 60 hours, that would help. And of course, no name brands, a sack of beans and rice is a good start. Healthy and cheap. Let's all do our part and stretch our dollar.

[bellal-2009]

. Do you spend money on alcohol and/or ciggerrettes,coffee,...Posted by yurpallid at 01:35 PM : Jan 08, 2007


No, No and Yes. How am I going to work 60 hours without the coffee.

[thgdriver]

In addition federal aid is available to those who seek it, both educational and career advancement opportunities.
Posted by yurpallid at 01:35 PM : Jan 08, 2007

That help is based on what you earn, if it's middle class you get--- 0, nada, zilch, nothing.

[randalds]

. Do you spend money on alcohol and/or ciggerrettes,coffee,...Posted by yurpallid at 01:35 PM : Jan 08, 2007


No, No and Yes. How am I going to work 60 hours without the coffee.
Posted by bellaL at 02:09 PM : Jan 08, 2007

Yes (I am a democrat with Bush in office, so I need some drinks) no (I quit smoking 3 years ago after more then 33 years of smoking) and god help anyone who tries to take my coffee away!

[bellal-2009]

Hi Randal, congrats on quitting. Don't forget to get the lung CT scans, your best defense.