White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at today's
daily press briefing:
Everything is on the table for that committee, everything including entitlement reform and tax reform. And let's be clear, the president thinks, as you know, that the biggest possible overall accomplishment in terms of deficit reduction is a desirable goal as long as it's balanced
He looks forward too, through the process set up by that committee, to having that debate about what our priorities are. If we need to, as legislated through this deal, find another $1.2 to $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts, how are we going to do that? Are we going to do it by asking sacrifice only of middle-class Americans? Or seniors? Parents of children who are disabled? Or are we going to ask others, including oil and gas companies, corporate jet manufacturers, or the wealthiest Americans share in the sacrifice. I think that is, again, a debate he's looking forward to.
Hey, we're going to make sure the disabled AND the oil companies pay. It's bipartisan. And when we're done being bipartisan, maybe Republicans will let us say something about jobs.