Kyl: GOP wants 10-year plan to cut spending as part of debt deal

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Monday said Senate Republicans want commitments on a 10-year budget plan that guarantees reduced spending as part of any agreement to increase the debt ceiling.

"Let's have a down payment on significant savings now," he said. "Let's set the budget numbers for the next 10 years so that they actually represent a reduction in spending, not an increase."

Kyl added that Republicans also want real entitlement reform, to make sure spending continues to drop after 10 years. He said Republicans are likely to be uninterested in any agreement that does not include these elements.

"Let's do that in such a way that we absolutely put constraints on Congress and the president — we put us in a straitjacket so to speak — so that we can't create exceptions and waivers and get around it in other ways," he said. "Unless we do those things, I don't think most of the people on my side of the aisle are going to have an appetite for increasing the debt ceiling. I know I'm not."

Kyl used his time on the floor to argue that raising taxes is not necessarily the way to increase government revenues, and said a study by Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute shows that historically, more revenue is generated by lower taxes. Kyl argued that this is because taxes are a tax on economic activity, which is stunted when taxes rise.

Vice President Biden's debt-ceiling group is expected to meet at least three times this week in the hopes of securing an agreement on how to allow for an increase. Kyl is part of this group, along with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), and others.

---