Second, spending cuts should be guaranteed by budget controls with teeth in the form of an agreement that would implement automatic, across-the-board cuts if Congress fails to enact a responsible budget.
Those cuts would reflect whatever recommendations of the special committee were enacted by Congress in December, or they would reflect automatic reductions in the absence of political agreement.
His comments at a White House news conference came less than two weeks before the end of the year, when the nation's taxpayers would face automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts if no agreement is reached.
And quite a few people I have spoken to think an agreement might not be reached until after some of those automatic tax rises and spending cuts have kicked in.
We have the deadlines bearing down on us related to automatic tax hikes that would occur and automatic across-the-board spending cuts that would occur if some sort of agreement isn't reached on that issue.