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Pelosi Originally Backed Boehner’s Tax Cut Plan to Dodge Fiscal Cliff, but Now is Critical

There has been some ambivalence between House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Speaker of the House John Boehner, whose “Plan B” attempts to avoid the fiscal cliff by making tax cuts for those making under $1 million. Most Democrats want it much lower, initially at $250,000 as President Barack Obama called for on his campaign trail, but now at $400,000, as they negotiate with Boehner.

“Democrats believe that tax cuts for those earning around a million dollars a year should expire and that we should use the resulting revenues to pay down the deficit,” Pelosi said in a letter, and on The Charlie Rose Show, she said that “On our Caucasus, there is a school of thought that says let’s get rid of all the tax cuts. I say, let’s begin by getting rid of tax cuts for people making more than a million dollars a year. I’m not even saying $250,000. The president’s saying $250,000. A Million and above. Who can argue with that?”

But apparently she herself can argue with that, and remain critical of John Boehner’s GOP debt proposal, which after being amended is now as of Tuesday morning known as “Plan B.” As she said in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, this version is “a tactic and not serious.” She says of the plan “We need to prevent going over the cliff and eliminate any thought that we would be downgraded due to our credit. We need to reduce the deficit. We need to create jobs.” Yet she says that Boehner’s “Plan B” doesn’t “do any of the above,” and hopes Democrats will “Come to the table again” to renegotiate.

Whether Pelosi is for or against Boehner, it seems clear enough that Republicans will probably have to budge on their million dollar mark sooner or later.

Daniel June: Daniel June studied English literature at Michigan State University, graduating in 2003. Working a potpourri of jobs since, from cake-decorator to proofreader, his passion has always been writing, resulting in books of essays, novels, and children’s novellas.