David Rogers:
In an email Monday to House Republicans, Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he is “cautiously optimistic” that ongoing talks with the White House will meet the standard set by Speaker John Boehner that “any increase in the debt limit ought to be accompanied by at least a commensurate reduction in the deficit. ... We have been going through all the major spending areas of the federal budget, beginning with non-health care mandatory programs and continuing with discussion on the health care entitlement programs.”
“We are also discussing discretionary spending and long-term budget process reforms that will hopefully prevent a repeat of the explosion of federal spending we have witnessed over the past several years.”
“Achieving the level of spending reductions we all desire will mean that virtually every category of federal spending will see some level of cuts.”
Obviously, what Cantor is doing here is beginning the process of building support among Republicans to support an extension of the debt ceiling, and he's doing it by claiming that the GOP is on the cusp of victory in its demands that any increase in the debt ceiling be offset by an equal amount of spending cuts.
The question is whether he's blowing smoke or not. He may simply be trying to shape the narrative to strengthen his negotiating position by digging in more deeply on the GOP's hostage demands, but it's also possible that the administration has actually agreed to massive spending cuts without achieving any concessions from Republicans on the revenue side. If it's the latter, even if Republicans drop the Ryan plan to repeal Medicare, then this whole exercise will have proven to be a monumental failure on both political and policy grounds.