House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “keeps changing the game plan” on the fiscal cliff and may not be in agreement with President Barack Obama on reaching a deal, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy told
Fox News on Monday.
The California Republican was asked by anchor Bill Hemmer about Pelosi’s weekend comments that the only way a bipartisan deal could be reached would be if GOP legislators agreed to increased taxes on the wealthy.
“Is that a game-stopper?” Hemmer asked.
“Well, the president isn’t saying that,” McCarthy responded. “Remember this: that Nancy said last May that it had to be a tax increase on those a million and more. So she keeps changing the game plan. That can’t be the case.”
Pelosi, a California Democrat, proposed in May that households earning up to $1 million a year be allowed to keep the Bush-era tax rates after January, when they are set to expire, Politico reports.
On Friday, Pelosi said that the president should keep to his position on raising taxes on Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. Then, on Sunday, she said any deal must include tax increases for the wealthy.
“Leader Pelosi fully supports President Obama, and she has made it very clear that we must reach agreement because we cannot go over the fiscal cliff,” Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami told Politico on Monday.
But Hemmer asked McCarthy whether Obama and Pelosi were “in lock-step” regarding revenue and tax increases.
“What I hear you saying is that the president is not in lock-step with Nancy Pelosi when it comes to tax rates versus revenue meaning and suggesting that he may go along with your deal as opposed to raising tax rates. Do you see that as a possibility?” Hemmer asked.
“I see that as a possibility,” McCarthy said. “I think elections are over. Let’s sit down and find a bipartisan way that we can solve this problem, not go to a fiscal cliff while at the same time have a pro-growth agenda where we grow jobs.”
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