WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dick Durbin
(D-Ill.) on Sunday opened the door to Social Security cuts as part of a budget
deal with congressional Republicans. But Durbin pushed back against GOP calls
for entitlement cuts as the negotiating price to curb or extinguish the
economically damaging sequester cuts.
"If this is the bargain
that the Republicans are now pushing for, that we have to cut Medicare to avoid
cuts at the Department of Defense, they need to take a step back," Durbin
said on "Fox News Sunday."
Congress is currently
negotiating a new budget, with a December deadline. The talks were mandated by
last week's deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown.
Also speaking on "Fox News
Sunday," Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) explicitly offered up trading some of the
short-term cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act, known as the sequester, for
long-term Social Security and Medicare cuts. He argued that Republicans had the
tactical advantage on such an exchange.
"If you're in a divided
government and you're arguing against the law, you're at a disadvantage,"
Blunt said, noting the failed GOP effort to defund Obamacare that resulted in a
government shutdown. "The Budget Control Act is the only thing we've found
that actually controls spending."
Blunt said that if Democrats
aren't willing to negotiate over "entitlement savings versus some
additional spending," to ease the sequester, then Democrats will have to
live with the sequester cuts.
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