Cantor: GOP Won't Budge on Cuts

Reuters reports:

Republicans in Congress will insist on real budget cuts and reforms of entitlement programs like Medicare before voting to raise the debt ceiling, House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on Tuesday.

Cantor said he remained "cynical" about whether Democrats will agree to the necessary spending cuts, though he was "heartened" by concessions voiced by his Democratic counterpart, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, about the need to revise entitlement programs.

Cantor said an "air of willingness" pervaded the seven-member deficit reduction commission led by Vice President Joe Biden, on which Cantor serves, to make what both sides agree are trillions of dollars in cuts over the next decade.

Until real progress is made on the long-term budget problem, House Republicans will not back raising the nation's debt ceiling, Cantor said.

"The votes are not going to be there unless the cuts are there and unless the reforms are there," Cantor said during a visit to the headquarters of the CME Group Inc, which operates the nation's largest futures exchanges.