Lawmakers urge supercommittee to ‘go big’ on deficit reduction

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from both houses urged the deficit-reduction supercommittee Wednesday to “go big” as it nears a deadline to avoid mandatory across-the-board cuts, telling the panel it has significant congressional support for a deal that would cut the deficit by about $4 trillion.

But Democrats and Republicans on the supercommittee later held separate meetings amid mounting pessimism that the 12-member panel would be able to reach an agreement.

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If Congress can’t come up with a way to cut $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, the Budget Act will do it for them unless some sort of postponement is worked out. A look at the deadlines that must be met and what happens if they’re not:

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Despite intense talks last week, there has been little indication of progress by a bipartisan group of lawmakers looking to reduce the nation's debt. The principal stumbling blocks revolve around taxes and large federal entitlement programs. (Nov. 14)

“We need to find out about whether our Republican colleagues want to continue to negotiate or whether they’ve drawn a hard line in the sand,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a supercommittee member.

The top Republican on the supercommittee, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tex.), backed away from his warning that GOP members have “gone as far as we feel we can go” on new tax revenue, telling reporters he would consider any offer by the panel’s Democrats. But he insisted that until the Democrats produce a counterproposal, the Republicans are “not changing” their own plan.

Earlier, in a Capitol Hill news conference, Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate stressed that a “bold” plan is needed to convince markets and the international community that the U.S. government is capable of dealing with its debt issues.

Members of what has been dubbed the “go-big coalition” said about 150 lawmakers in both houses support a compromise deficit-reduction plan that would include increases in revenue and cuts to entitlement programs. About 40 members of the group attended the news conference.

“We want [the supercommittee] to know that there is a large and significant number of us in both chambers who want such a deal and are ready to give it a fair shot,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the House minority whip. “None of us want to risk the immediate and long-term effects of sequestration . . . if the committee fails.” He referred to the procedure, codified in this summer’s deal to raise the debt ceiling, that would trigger automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Under the sequestration requirement, annual cuts of $109.3 billion would start in fiscal 2013, with half the amount to come from the Defense Department — reductions that the Pentagon has warned could affect national security.

The coalition wants the supercommittee to know that “the right thing to do is to go big,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). He said that could mean deficit reduction of $3 trillion to $6 trillion, instead of the minimum requirement of $1.2 trillion that the panel must agree on by a Nov. 23 deadline.

“I’m very proud to stand here with these folks today and say, ‘supercommittee, we got your back,’ ” Chambliss said.

Although several members of the coalition repeated that expression of support, they offered no specifics on how to reach a deficit-reduction deal in the range of $4 trillion, providing little more than encouragement from the sidelines as the supercommittee struggles to agree on how to achieve even the $1.2 trillion minimum.