Sen. Kerry Blames Republicans, Norquist From Preventing Supercommittee Deal
"We could have a deal in the next two hours. We could have an agreement, a solution to this problem. We could cut $1.2 trillion, and we could do it tomorrow morning, we could put it before the nation and get this job done. And there are only two things blocking us from doing that," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" this morning.
"One, and I've heard this from Republicans in the Senate and in the House, who say to me, "The calculation politically has been made by many that they think they're going to win the Senate, win the presidency, and they want to wait until next year and just write their own deal." And the second, and most significant block to our doing something right now, tomorrow, is their insistence, insistence, insistence on the Grover Norquist pledge and extending the Bush tax cuts.
"Now we are not a tax cutting committee. We're a deficit reduction committee. And everybody out there has said to us, "Go big. Do $4 trillion." We Democrats put a $4 trillion deal on the table. and it included huge, hard, tough, horrible reductions on the sacred cows and things that we have been accused other not being willing to do. We put it out there.
"I've had demonstrations outside my offices in Boston. I've had people screaming at me because we'd even dare to think of doing this. But they went, they wouldn't accept it. They wouldn't accept a $1.3 trillion cut, $1.3 trillion revenue," Kerry said.
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