Democrats will lower the federal debt if they retake control of the government, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, even as they seek to enact major infrastructure spending and other new programs while undoing the GOP tax law.
“Democrats believe you must pay as you go,” the California Democrat said at an event hosted by the fiscally conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
New government investments must be offset in the budget, she said.
Pelosi steered clear of saying how Democratic initiatives, such as a new federal education and housing funding, would be paid for. She didn’t give Republicans more campaign material by pledging to raise taxes, even though she said Democrats will seek a bipartisan rewrite of the tax code that would raise revenue.
Nevertheless, she dismissed the possibility of simply adding expensive new programs to the debt, as some liberal Democrats have suggested should be a tactic to respond to GOP tax cuts.
She described the debt as a “dark cloud” hanging over future generations, and argued that it would hurt Congress’ ability to budget in the future.
Asked about one of the biggest liberal proposals, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ call for a federal jobs guarantee, Pelosi deferred judgment and said that she would like to see a cost estimate for it.
