And I think the president has been doing a very effective job getting the conversation going.”
On whether President Obama could jumpstart the process of balancing the budget by embracing some additional entitlement reforms:
“We are in a point in the process right now where the House and the Senate are passing budget resolutions, they’re going to go to conference. There is a broad bipartisan sense in both the House and the Senate that the committees need to work, the regular order needs to work. The president is engaged to try and encourage that broad center to strengthen, to help get to a point. He’s made clear what he’s prepared to do and that’s been challenging some democrats to do more and some republicans to do more. I am not saying what will and won’t be in his budget but he’s not waiting for his budget to get the conversation going.”
On whether President Obama has given up on trying to balance the budget:
“He has made clear that we need to have a 10 year plan that does $4 trillion of deficit reduction that is broadly understood to be the level of reduction to stabilize our debt and deficit as a percentage of GDP. If we can do more after that, he’s not closing the door to keeping the conversation going. Let’s not put a bigger goal in the way of accomplishing a very important next step…We have a challenging road ahead to get our fiscal house where it needs to be. I think the challenge first is to stabilize our deficit and get to the point where we meet standards that are broadly and on a bipartisan basis understood to be a step on the way to balancing the budget. My own view having been through the budget battles of the ‘80s, ‘90s and up till now is if we can do the $4 trillion of deficit reduction that’s broadly understood to be needed to stabilize the deficit and the debt as a percentage of GDP, we then continue to work towards further fiscal policy in the future. You don’t stop but I think shifting the conversation now probably doesn’t speed up the progress of getting there. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, we didn’t get there in one step. There were deficit reduction efforts in the ‘80s, ‘90s, 1990, 1993, 1997. It took a lot of bites at the apple to get the job done. We need to take the next step.”
On what the path is to a grand bargain budget deal:
“I think what’s important about this last week, 10 days is that a door has been opened. There’s a conversation going on a broad, bipartisan basis. There’s a much better understanding of positions. And I think there is an acknowledgement that the President is willing to do some very hard things and has been willing to do some very hard things in order to deal with our fiscal challenges in a fair and balanced way. Obviously, there’s more progress that needs to be made. This is not a negotiation, this is just as I say, opening a door. I’ve had the privilege over this last two months, of talking to literally half of the Senate in one-on-one meetings. I’ve had this conversation face-to-face with Democrats and Republicans. I think there is a growing sense that everyone knows where a balanced, fair deal is. Everyone knows that we need to get there. They just don’t how to get there. You have to start, you have to start by talking. You have to start by opening the door. And I think these have been good, constructive conversations. No one thought that, at the end of this round of conversations, we would be here. If this was easy, we would have gotten it done in 2011 or we would have gotten it done in 2012. You don’t stop just because it’s hard.”
