Politico...
Cantor: Group could
agree on $1T in cuts
By Jake Sherman
The top House Republican on Vice President Joe Biden’s deficit
reduction panel said he is confident the group will find “over a
trillion dollars in savings at this point and hopefully more.”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters after
Tuesday’s meeting broke up that the group is making “some very good
progress.” But Cantor declined to detail any specific areas of
agreement in what to cut.
“The discussions are thorough,” Cantor said. “And I think there is an
understanding that the kind of deficit we’re experiencing demands
everyone having to make some tough decisions.”
These are the most optimistic comments from a Republican lawmaker about
the workings of the panel, which has been operating under a pact of
silence since it began earlier this spring. Cantor even allowed that
“coming together and finding some agreement on spending cuts is not
that difficult.”
But nothing will be that simple. Cantor reiterated what might emerge as
a sticking point: House Republicans will not support any tax increases,
and Biden said Tuesday that revenue increases would still have to be on
the table.
The panel is working on a plan that could be attached to a hike of the
debt ceiling — although that’s not its stated goal. The Treasury
Department has said that the U.S. reaches its statutory borrowing
capability on Aug. 2. At that point, Republicans will feel pressure
from the markets and Democrats to act on a debt ceiling increase.
“I don’t think anybody wants to wait until the end, this place tends to
be a place of procrastination, perhaps this can be different,” Cantor
said. “I do think again, I want to reiterate, I do think that progress
is being made.”
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