Pelosi: Tax deal is ‘massive’ giveaway

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) on Friday assailed the major tax deal under negotiation in Congress as “a massive, permanent, real giveaway” that’s “destructive of our future.” 

Pelosi said she is not part of the negotiations over the year-end tax extenders bill, which could make permanent several tax breaks prized by the business community.

{mosads}”I’m not part of that because I don’t believe in it,” Pelosi said. “I think it’s the wrong way to go. My members share that view. … They don’t even want us negotiating on it for anything, because they think it’s the wrong place to go.”

Democrats have pushed to extend the child tax credit in the tax legislation and index it to inflation so that it rises over time, but Republicans have rejected that plan. 

Still, Pelosi suggested most House Democrats are unlikely to vote for the tax bill even if Republicans drop their opposition to indexing.

“We don’t need to be for it,” she said. “They’ll have enough Republican votes supporting their special interest friends to pass this thing in a second.”

She criticized Republicans for seeking to lift the ban on crude oil exports in the legislation, and alluded to reports that the package could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Pelosi said that Republican deficit hawks must be an “endangered species,” because she hasn’t heard them speak out against the package.