"Obviously the debt ceiling is coming up in about a month now, and this is must-pass legislation," said Goldwein, now policy director at the Washington-based Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "Something's going to have to be agreed to. Given that amount of time, what we should be looking for is a $4 trillion plan."
Goldwein said the best action would be a comprehensive plan that includes overhaul of taxes and entitlement spending, such as Medicare, and doesn't delay tough decisions until after the 2012 elections.
No Tax Increase
Any deal with the administration shouldn't include a tax increase, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said yesterday on CNN's "State of the Union" broadcast.
Closing some so-called tax loopholes would "have very small impact, but the principle of not raising taxes is something that we campaigned on last November and the results of the election was that the American people didn't want their taxes raised and they wanted us to cut spending," he said.
Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate in the 2010 midterm elections.
Cornyn, asked about the idea of Obama ignoring the debt ceiling, said that's "crazy talk."
"It's not acceptable for Congress and the president not to do their job and to say somehow the president has the authority then to basically do this by himself," he said. "We ought to sit down and work together."
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat who balanced his city's budget, said both the Democratic administration and Republican congressional leaders will need to yield.
Head In Sand