Pryor Thinks Deadline, Consequences Will Help Supercommittee Meet Goals

Politico reports that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said today that across-the-board spending cuts that will kick in if the Congressional deficit reduction supercommittee doesn’t find common ground is "unacceptable."

The law signed earlier this year to get a handle on the federal budget would trigger $1.2 trillion in cuts if a bipartisan, bicameral panel doesn’t agree on cuts.

Currently, Republicans are calling for cuts of nearly $2.2 trillion, while Democrats are pushing for $3 trillion in cuts offset by $1.3 trillion in tax increases.

In his first comments about the Democrats’ plan, Boehner said $1.3 trillion in tax increases is “not a reasonable number.”

Boehner said he’s not surprised the process seems to be at an impasse of sorts.

“I’m not surprised that we’re having some difficulty because this isn’t easy,” Boehner said. “It’s going to be very hard. But I do think it’s time for everybody to get serious about this.”

Earlier this month at a Political Animals Club meeting, Arkansas Congressman Tim Griffin (R) expressed reservations about the deficit panel’s efforts. According to the Associated Press, Griffin said he thought the group would meet a Thanksgiving deadline for spending cuts, but he didn’t think they would tackle "bold" tax reform.

Today, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D) told Talk Business that he’s "not really" a fan of the trigger mechanism, but he thinks it might be the only way for a consensus to be constructed.

"That’s more of a blunt instrument where there’s a lot of across-the-board cuts in defense, and that’s a pretty painful remedy. I think that’s one of the reasons though that they are working very, very hard to get to an agreement right now. No one likes that remedy that we built into the law," Pryor said. "You have to put something like that in there to get people to the negotiating table and actually get something done. The problem is — human nature being what it is — we always work best when there’s a deadline and we work best when there’s severe consequences, and there’s severe consequences in this."