Pelosi, Obama disagree on tax cuts, Bush investigations

January 18, 2009
Posted: 07:40 PM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Pelosi wants taxes repealed on the rich immediately.

(CNN) — Two days before President-elect Barack Obama is officially sworn in, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear she disagrees with the incoming administration on at least two issues.

Obama has indicated he is not interested in repealing President Bush's tax cuts for wealthy Americans before they expire in two years or investigating past actions of the Bush administration.

But speaking on Fox News Sunday, Pelosi said she wants Congress to consider repealing tax cuts on those who make over $250,000 immediately and is pushing for a congressional investigation into whether the Bush administration illegally fired federal prosecutors two years ago.

On taxes, Obama's stimulus plan does not call for repealing president's tax cuts for wealthier individuals, even though the president-elect had said he would during the presidential campaign. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a top Obama economic advisor, also suggested Sunday that repealing Bush’s tax cuts will not be a priority.

But Pelosi said Sunday she wants the incoming president to stick to his campaign pledge.

"We had campaigned in saying what the Republican Congressional Budget Office told us: Nothing contributed more to the budget deficit than the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America," Pelosi said in the interview.

A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Pelosi's statement "false," and cited a recent fact check from the St. Petersburg Times disputing the House Speaker's claim tax cuts for the wealthy is the biggest contributor to the budget deficit.

Pelosi said she would not seek to block the president-elect’s stimulus plan over its lack of tax hikes for the rich, but she urged Obama to not to simply let the tax cuts expire in two years.

"[Tax cuts on the wealthy] have to prove their worth to me as to how they grow the economy, how they create jobs," she said.

Pelosi also pushed for an investigation into the Bush administration's handling of the Justice Department, despite pledges from Obama and his aides not to focus on the administration they are succeeding.

"I think that we have to learn from the past, and we cannot let the politicizing of, for example, the Justice Department, go unreviewed," Pelosi said. "Past is prologue."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/18/pelosi-obama-disagree-on-tax-cuts-bush-investigations/