Allowing the Bush-era tax rates to expire would provide more than enough revenue to do away with the automatic spending cuts set to begin in 2013, a high-ranking Democrat said Thursday. 

Shedding light on Democrats’ potential end game for what’s sure to be a jam-packed lame-duck session, House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) floated the notion of letting taxes rise to cancel out the sequestered spending cuts.

Smith suggested the revenue from letting the tax rates expire would be more than sufficient to cover the $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction that’s needed to reverse the automatic cuts to both defense and non-defense spending scheduled to begin in January 2013.

The group, including the Transportation secretary's son, had been barred from leaving Egypt since January and threatened with prosecution.

Sen. John Kerry said the U.S. must "proceed with extreme caution" in Syria, where violence intensified on Thursday.

The killings will fuel further questions about the NATO mission to train the Afghan National Security Force. 

"We're not out of the woods yet," President Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

GOP Sen. Kyl criticized the administration for violating U.S. policy by connecting North Korean nuclear disarmament with nutritional aid.

Press secretary Jay Carney said the U.S. has an “unshakeable commitment” to Israel’s security — an approach that is "very clear."

On Wednesday a new set of sanctions on Iran that Congress passed in December went into effect. Obama administration officials said the tightening sanctions are having an effect, although Iran has not yet made significant concessions on its nuclear energy program.

Under the National Defense Authorization Act, any foreign private bank that does business with Iran’s Central Bank from now on, for any other reason than purchasing oil, will be cut off from doing buiness with the U.S. financial system. On June 28, oil purchases will also be covered by the law. Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) authored the sanctions.

David Cohen, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told a banking conference Wedensday that Iran’s currency is plummeting, and this is a sign that increasing sanctions, which prompted Europe to cut off oil imports, are having an effect.

“Altogether since early September, the rial has lost about half of its value,” he said. “The Iranian government has tried to stem the decline of the rial, including by banning the sale of Western currency and reportedly restricting Iranian citizens’ ability to trade currency by blocking text messages containing the word ‘euro’ or ‘dollar.’

Cremated partial remains tossed into a landfill at a Dover Air Force Base mortuary included victims of the attacks.