Patriot Update

Speaker of the House John Boehner’s “Plan B” to avert the fiscal cliff would cut taxes for incomes under $1 million — a higher threshold than the White House demands, but one that had a powerful backer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

In May, Pelosi sent Boehner a letter calling for the immediate passage of a middle class tax cuts up to that level, while President Barack Obama was on the campaign trail calling for taxes to rise on incomes over $250,000. The White House has since revised that target at $400,000 in ongoing negotiations with Boehner, but has shown few signs it would accept the $1 million level.

“Democrats believe that tax cuts for those earning over a million dollars a year should expire and that we should use the resulting revenues to pay down the deficit,” Pelosi said in the letter.

A month earlier on The Charlie Rose Show Pelosi went further, noting Democratic opposition to the $250,000 mark.