Hoyer just said that Boehner won’t get the votes for raising the debt limit from his teabagger freshman, so he needs Democratic votes, and he won’t get any without a tax increase:

“I’ve told Mr. Boehner that I will help,” Hoyer said. “Now I’m not going to help on some draconian do it my way or the highway vote, but we Democrats are prepared to co-operate in order to assure that the creditworthiness of the United States is not put at risk and to move towards a fiscally responsible path…everything needs to be on the table, and when I say everything I mean everything…. Revenues need to be a significant part of it.”

…………

The Democrats’ vote-counter in the House of Representatives says the GOP will need his help to raise the national debt limit — but they won’t get it if they don’t put everything on the table, including tax revenues.

“Speaker Boehner needed Democratic votes to pass keeping government running, even at minimal levels,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing, in response to a question from TPM. “So my presumption is [Senator] Schumer is right.”

That’s more balls than I expected from Hoyer, who seems to spend most of his time sabotaging the efforts of real Democrats.