Brian Beutler:
Senate Democrats just had a feisty meeting with White House budget director Jack Lew, and raised concerns about this and similar reports. And in a statement to reporters after the meeting broke Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pushed Obama not to budge on his vow that any debt reduction plan must contain balance (read revenue).
"I only know what you know about the agreement -- the potential agreement. I've been told -- a call came in from the White House during this meeting that there's no agreement, they're working toward an agreement. What I have to say is this: The President always talked about balance. That there had to be some fairness in this. That this can't be all cuts. There has to be a balance. There has to be some revenue in the cuts. My caucus agrees with that. I hope the President sticks with that. I'm confident he will."
Amen. It's impossible to pass a significant deficit reduction package without including revenue. And it would be a complete disaster if the administration tried. That's a point White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer acknowledged in this denial of multiple reports the White House would agree to spending cuts without revenues:
That's encouraging to see, but it's not just a $3 trillion deal that needs to be balanced; it's any deal, whether it's $2 trillion or $4 trillion or whatever. And the balance can't come in the form of a promise. It needs to be real.
1:04 PM PT: Interesting note: Luke Russert just reported on MSNBC that the leak about the $3 trillion debt deal (the one the White House is denying) came from a Democratic Senate aide.