Pelosi Elusive on Bush Tax Cut Status

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday that tax cuts for the wealthy and unfunded wars under the Bush administration led to record deficits but the House Speaker declined to say whether those tax cuts will allowed to expire at the end of this year.

Noting that the last four budgets from the Clinton administration were balanced or created a surplus, Pelosi castigated the Bush administration for veering from that course, “President Bush’s administration turned that all around and now we’re in a trajectory of going further into deficit than into surplus. A big swing over $12 trillion.”

While specifically asked about the ability to keep taxes at their current low rate and still reduce the deficit, Pelosi did not mention the largest future tax increase, the expriation of the Bush tax cuts. She said that a better path to raise more revenue would be to grow the economy, which she says the Democrats have done through passage of the stimulus act and health care reform.

- Fox News' Sharon Kehnemui contributed to this report.