Both Republicans and Democrats want to sound open to compromise on the deficit reduction committee, but yesterday GOP leadership identified a bipartisan “blueprint” for success, as the Democratic National Committee chair said she’d prefer spending cuts through the automatic trigger over a pure Republican proposal.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., affirmed that he is “confident” the bipartisan deficit reduction committee – the Supercommittee – will cut the required $1.2 trillion. “Yes, I think the joint selection committee will be successful in reaching the goal of getting at least $1.2 trillion in cuts,” Cantor said on Fox News Sunday. “And to the vice-president’s credit, it was that [Biden] committee that actually produced the blueprint that I think can form the basis of the getting to the $1.2 trillion.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., seems to disagree with Cantor’s belief that “folks in this town on both sides of the aisle know that we can’t fail.” The Democratic National Committee Chairwoman outlined her vision for Supercommittee success to Candy Crowley on State of the Union, saying that “the Republican leadership should press their members to do what President Obama and Speaker Boehner originally planned to do.” Wasserman Schultz apparently was referring to the debt ceiling agreement that Boehner abandoned after President Obama “moved the goal posts” by demanding more tax hikes than the two had agreed upon previously. She added that “we need to make sure we do this with revenue and cuts.”
Failing such an agreement, however, Wasserman Schultz would accept the automatic trigger cuts. “The default is, you know, not the worst option but it would certainly be better than the Republican proposal to get to $1.2 trillion,” she said, defining that plan as “piling all the cuts on the backs of the middle class.”
