Cantor to Democrats: See, cutting spending's not that hard

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday that the deficit discussions led by Vice President Joe Biden have been “all positive” so far.

The House majority leader, one of the bipartisan group of lawmakers meeting with Biden and administration officials about a deal to raise the debt ceiling, also reiterated that his party would not get behind any new tax revenue.

But he also said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that everything – including entitlement programs – was on the table when it came to cuts, and that the participants in the sit-downs may have found more common ground than they expected.

“It’s easier to find places to cut and to gain efficiencies than the Democrats may have thought otherwise,” said Cantor, who also declared the group could coalesce around “well over” $1 trillion in cuts. 

For her part, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), also the new chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said on the show that, with her party having agreed to cuts in areas they find important, Republicans needed to take the same sort of approach to taxes.

“There needs to be some shared sacrifice,” Wasserman Schultz said.

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