More taxes: ‘Behind us’ or ‘on the table’?

Nor was Mrs. Pelosi the only top Democrat to push tax-raising ideas on Sunday’s political talk shows.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, proposed on CNN’s “State of the Union” an energy tax to fund infrastructure spending.

“We’ve talked about the gas tax. Now’s not the moment to raise it, but it really is something we should consider in the future,” Mr. Durbin said. “But there are other sources of energy taxes we ought to consider.”

Mr. Durbin went on to say, “Let me give you an example: The electric power grid in America is ancient, and if we are going to expand it so that it can meet the needs of the 21st century, we need an investment.”

“That means revenue coming in from that sector. I think they’d be open to it if the investment went back into the infrastructure,” he said.

Democrats argue that they came up short in the fiscal cliff deal because they settled for $1.2 trillion in additional revenue instead of the $1.6 trillion sought by Mr. Obama.

“The president had originally said he wanted $1.6 trillion in revenue,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “He took it down to $1.2 [trillion] as a compromise in this legislation. We get $620 billion but that is not enough on the revenue side.”

Mrs. Pelosi called herself “fairly agnostic” about how to raise revenue, although she and Mr. Durbin suggested that they would support closing loopholes and eliminating deductions.

“There are still deductions, credits, special treatments under the tax code which ought to be looked at carefully,” Mr. Durbin said.

At the same time, Mrs. Pelosi ruled out Republican proposals to reduce entitlement spending, such as raising the Medicare eligibility age and reducing the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security. She did say that she would consider a means-testing system for Medicare.

For all the talk of revenue, however, Mr. McConnell appeared confident that another effort to raise taxes would fall short in the Senate.

“I think a bipartisan majority in the Senate will have the view that the tax issue is behind us,” he said.

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