McConnell Rejects Obama's 2014 Trigger for Deficit Cuts

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday rejected the notion of committing to future budget cuts after the President leaves office as he appointed a fellow Senate Republican to a debt panel to discuss how to reduce the long-term federal deficits.

Partisan speeches and promises of some future cuts after the President leaves office simply won't suffice, McConnell said in a statement.

McConnell appointed Sen. John Kyl, R-AZ to the panel, which Obama wants to start meeting in early May. It will be headed by Vice President Joe Biden.

In a speech last week, President Barack Obama - who has launched a 2012 re-election campaign - blasted as pessimistic Republican proposals for large cuts in federal spending without increasing taxes for wealthier Americans.

Obama proposed a debt failsafe that would make spending cuts and raise taxes in 2014, if Congress had not agreed to a deal by that time. Cuts triggered by the failsafe would not include Medicare, a program which Republicans have targeted for restructuring to save costs.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said the Obama Administration wanted to reach an agreement in early June to a credible enforcement mechanism so that deficit cutting targets were meaningful.

I think that would provide a very positive signal, that the U.S. was going to get ahead of the nation's deficit problems.

Also on Tuesday, House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-OH, appointed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA to the deficit panel.

Last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. to the panel

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appointed Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, D-SC and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee.