Cantor: Obama dragged to the table on spending 
 
 House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday that White House senior adviser David Plouffe is not being honest when he says that President Barack Obama has been leading the discussion on cutting taxes and reducing the deficit. 
 
 “We’ve had to bring this president kicking and screaming to the table to cut spending,” Cantor said on "Fox News Sunday." “I then hear they’re going to present a plan as to how to address the fiscal situation…. In my opinion its really hard to believe what this president is saying.” 
 
 Cantor said that Obama is proposing violating the very tax agreement that was signed in December, which he supported, and is flip flopping on his previous opposition to raising the debt limit. 
 
 “Right away, they’re insisting that we have to go about looking at raising taxes again all while holding up the tax agreement that as signed in December,” Cantor said. “On one hand, we’re going to defend that tax agreement then go about violating it.” 
 
 Cantor promised that Republicans would oppose raising the debt limit unless it was accompanied by policy guards against increasing the deficit. 
 
 “This spending deal that was cut this week was only the beginning,” he said. “This was only the first bite of the apple. We’ve been saying that all along.” 
 
 The debt ceiling debate, he said, would be next. ||||| Spending cuts in the budget deal will be posted on the Internet on Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday. 
 
 Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Schumer said that about half of the $38.5 billion in cuts came from mandatory spending areas like defense and agriculture. 
 
 
 
 “That’s what allowed us to get to that number,” Schumer said. “The tea party wanted them all to come from domestic discretionary” spending, which he said would target areas like teacher funding, head start and cancer research. 
 
 
 
 Many Democrats have complained that the administration accepted too much in cuts that were aimed disproportionately at the poor and disadvantaged. But Schumer said that the White House and Senate Democrats fought for cuts to mandatory spending programs in order to reduce the burden on discretionary programs. 
 
 
 
 “The cuts are across the board,” Schumer said. “Everybody gets some pain.” ||||| With White House senior adviser David Plouffe and congressional Democrats warning about the risks of not raising the debt ceiling, Republicans countered on Sunday that there's no way that President Barack Obama would get a clean bill without other concessions. 
 
 
 
 “The president just can’t waltz in and say we’re going to have a debt crisis if we don’t raise the debt limit, Congress,” Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican of the Senate Budget Committee said on CBS’s “Face the Nation," “and we’re not going to have any changes and I’m not going to support any changes.” 
 
 
 
 “He’s going to have to meet Congress halfway - really the American people halfway,” Sessions said. 
 
 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), fresh off the budget talks, told donors this weekend that if Obama wants an up or down vote on the debt ceiling he’s not going to get it. 
 
 
 
 “The president says I want you to send me a clean bill,” Boehner said. “Well guess what, Mr. President, not a chance you’re going to get a clean bill.” 
 
 
 
 “There will not be an increase in the debt limit without something really, really big attached to it,” he continued in a clip of his remarks at a fundraiser that was played during “Face the Nation.” 
 
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 permalink ||||| President Barack Obama will lay out a long-term deficit reduction plan this week, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday. 
 
 “The president will be laying out his approach to long-term deficit reduction later this week,” Plouffe said on NBC's "Meet the Press," adding that Obama’s budget for 2012 has already put forward a plan for reducing the deficit by a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. 
 
 White House communications director Dan Pfieffer later added that Obama would deliver the address on Wednesay. 
 
 Plouffe said that Obama has already put in place much of his deficit commission’s recommendations, but he plans to lay out additional steps that need to be taken in this week’s speech. 
 
 
 
 “For instance, freezing the pay of federal workers for a period of time…Fundamental reform of the government…We obviously then have to do more,” Plouffe said. “And that's what the president's gonna lay out.” 
 
 Plouffe indicated that Obama would address finding savings in Medicare and Medicaid, but would not endorse many of the proposals in the long-term deficit reduction plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee. 
 
 
 
 “It may pass the House. It's it's not gonna become law,” Plouffe said. “I don't think the American people are gonna sign up for something that puts - most of the burden on the middle class, people trying to go to college, on senior citizens while not just asking nothing of the wealthy - giving them at least a $200,000 tax [break] and so that's a choice you're making.” 
 
 Plouffle also indicated that Obama would propose rescinding the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy as part of his deficit reduction plan. 
 
 “For upper income Americans he does believe that they need to contribute to deficit reduction in this country,” Plouffe said on Fox News Sunday. 
 
 But when host Chris Wallace asked whether such a proposal would pass in light of opposition from House Republicans, Plouffe indicated that Obama would make the point that the GOP proposal is cuts services for seniors and the poor in order to give tax cuts to the wealthy. 
 
 “They’re plan is a trillion dollar tax cut,” Plouffe said. “So again, the reason you have to ask more for seniors, the middle class and the poor… is because you’re giving the rich these tax cuts.” 
 
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 permalink ||||| Failure to raise the debt ceiling would be a "catastrophic failure" for the country that would wreak havoc on the economy, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday. 
 
 The debt ceiling is something that has to be raised every once in a while. It's something the Speaker of the House John Boehner has said if we didn't raise it would bring a financial disaster both in this country 
 
 and around the world. Economist after economist has said it would raise interest rates. It could wreak havoc on the housing market, on the economy. It could be a catastrophic failure for the United States 
 
 economy if we didn't raise it," Plouffe said on NBC's "Meet the Press." 
 
 
 
 "We should not be playing brinkmanship with the full faith and credit of the United States of America," he added. "So what - of course we're going to do that." ||||| White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on Sunday that President Barack Obama will continue to call for the wealthiest Americans to pay higher taxes in a speech scheduled for this week. 
 
 "People like him, as he'll say, who've been very fortunate in life, have the ability to pay a little bit more," Plouffe said on NBC's "Meet the Press," emphasizing the president will also continue his pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. 
 
 "He has said he believes taxes on the higher income - people over $250,000 - should eventually go up. … I think the president’s goal - and he's been clear about this - is to protect the middle class as we move forward here," Plouffe added. 
 
 Plouffe praised congressional Republicans for making specific cuts in their budget plan, but said they would draw the line on their approach to taxes. 
 
 “The Republican congressional plan that came out...they put some specific ideas out. They should be credited for that. There's a couple in there we agree with. They, for instance, preserve the savings from the health-care reform in Medicare," Plouffe said. "But the congressional Republican plan, for instance, … would give the average millionaire a $200,000 tax cut while asking more of the middle class. … So we're obviously not going to sign on with that approach." 
 
 The budget plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) "may pass the House," Plouffe acknowledged. But "it's not going to become law."
– According to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, President Obama had to be dragged “kicking and screaming to the table to cut spending,” he said on Fox News Sunday. Cantor says White House senior adviser David Plouffe is being dishonest in his claim that Obama was the one leading that discussion, Politico reports. Elsewhere on the Sunday dial: The president will make a major budget address Wednesday. He will lay out “his approach to long-term deficit reduction,” David Plouffe said on Meet the Press, adding that the president’s 2012 budget includes a plan to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade. Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Face the Nation that details on the spending cuts included in the budget deal will be posted online tomorrow. As Plouffe was charging that not raising the debt ceiling would be a “catastrophic failure,” Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was on Face the Nation countering that, “The president just can’t waltz in and say we’re going to have a debt crisis if we don’t raise the debt limit … He’s going to have to meet Congress halfway—really the American people halfway.” John Boehner, meanwhile, told donors this weekend that “there will not be an increase in the debt limit without something really, really big attached to it.” The president still wants to raise taxes on the rich, Plouffe said. “He has said he believes taxes on the higher income—people over $250,000—should eventually go up. … I think the president’s goal—and he's been clear about this—is to protect the middle class as we move forward here.”