On this, deficit committee members agree: "Time is running out"

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 8:59 AM EST, Fri November 18, 2011

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The deficit reduction super committee has until Wednesday to reach a deal
• If it fails, across-the-board cuts will follow
• Members said Friday that talks are continuing and a deal is still possible

Washington (CNN) -- Republican and Democratic members of the special congressional committee tasked with cutting $1.2 trillion from the national budget deficit over the next 10 years haven't agreed on much since they began their work in September.
But there is one thing on which they do agree now.
"Time is running out," Democratic Rep. Chris van Hollen and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey each said in separate Friday morning appearances on CNN.
The committee has until Wednesday to come to an agreement on cutting at least $1.2 trillion from the nation's deficit over the next 10 years. Failure would result in $1.2 trillion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts starting in 2013, evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending.
"It's not going to be easy," Toomey, R-Pennsylvania said. "Time is running out, but it hasn't run out yet. So we're here. We're working. We're talking. It's difficult, but it's still possible."
Democrats led by President Barack Obama are seeking a comprehensive agreement that includes equal portions of new tax revenue, spending cuts and reforms to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans have a narrower focus that emphasizes spending cuts and entitlement reforms to shrink the size of government. They have opposed any tax increases or talk of increased revenue until last week when Toomey called for $400 billion in increased revenue, including tax increases.
Toomey's plan also included $800 billion in spending cuts and entitlement reforms for a total of $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction -- the minimum amount the panel must agree to under the legislation that created it.
Democrats responded with a proposal using similar figures, but calling for all $400 billion in new revenue to be from increased tax collections. The Democratic plan also dropped entitlement reforms and a Republican call to make permanent Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of 2012.
The Democratic package would include spending of about $700 billion on measures that Democrats believe are needed to jump-start the economy: an extension of the payroll tax cut and continued benefits for people who have been unemployed for an extended period.
It also would include money to permanently prevent cuts in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Democrats want to offset those costs with the money saved from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a step that some legislators in both parties have criticized as an accounting gimmick.
On Thursday, House leaders from each party escalated the rhetoric over possible failure by the committee created as part of the debt ceiling agreement earlier this year.
House Speak John Boehner, R-Ohio, accused Democrats of refusing to sign off on any deal, while Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said Republicans were fixated on tax policy, pushing the committee towards a smaller deal than the "big, bold and balanced" package she would prefer.
Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said on CNN that he thought negotiators, working sometimes in the same room but also through "shuttle diplomacy," had made some progress recently despite what he characterized as a hardening of Republican attitudes.
"Recently they appear to have dug in on their position, and what we're trying to do now is bridge those differences, and there was some progress in that area but let's see if it turns out to be real," he said.