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Durbin: Obama was 'where he should be' in supercommittee negotiations
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin pushed back on claims that the supercommittee failed because President Obama was not involved enough in the panel's negotiations.
Republicans have criticized Obama for failing to lead on the deficit panel's negotiations and charged that the committee's failure is a result of a lack of leadership by the president.
"Three different times this president stepped up," Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday on MSNBC. "Twice directly to Speaker [John] Boehner [R-Ohio], once to Vice President Biden and [House Majority Leader] Eric Cantor [R-Va.] and said, 'Let's negotiate the real thing.' Each of those negotiations the Republicans walked away. So I think the president was where he should be, on the sidelines saying, 'Your special committee, your responsibility, I'm going to back ya up if you get it done.' "
"I'll tell you point blank, if you want to know," Durbin said. "If you watch '60 Minutes' and saw Grover Norquist preening and gloating over the scalps he has on the wall of all the Republicans he defeated who would dare ever consider voting for new revenues or taxes. They were scared to death of what the impact would be. There are a handful that stepped out on the Republican side. [Sen.] Tom Coburn [R-Okla.] was one of the precious few."
Durbin's comments came a day after the supercommittee announced that it failed to reach an agreement to cut at least $1.2 trillion in federal spending.
Durbin admitted that there was pressure among the Democratic members of the panel to protect entitlement programs.
"On our side, sure there was pressure, but not like that," Durbin continued. "It is a pressure, no question about it. You know when it gets right down to it, there'll be people upset about it.
"But the message to them is clear — Medicare, untouched, is going to run out of money in 12 years," he added.
However, Durbin said that the pressure on Democrats to protect entitlement programs was reasonable and nothing like the anti-tax forces looming over Republican supercommittee members.
"I don't want to place all the blame on the Republicans, but Norquist is this éminence grise looming over this process," Durbin said.
A day earlier, Norquist said Republican lawmakers should not be worried about pressure from him.
"They wouldn't have to worry about me, they'd have to worry about voters," Norquist said Monday on CNN.
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