Kyl, Cantor To Attend Debt Talks

Politico reports:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to name his deputy, Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), to the budget talks led by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner has named House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Obama had urged each caucus to name four members to the talks – but House and Senate Democrats each named two, and McConnell has entrusted the talks into the staunchly conservative Kyl, who is retiring next year. Boehner is appointing Cantor alone.

“Sen. Kyl is a key member of our leadership team and a senior member of the Finance Committee," McConnell said in a statement. "He understands both the urgency of the debt crisis and the need for a significant effort to reduce that debt before any successful vote on the debt ceiling increase. There is bipartisan opposition in the Senate to raising the debt ceiling unless we do something significant about the debt, and I was encouraged to see the President acknowledge that in an interview Friday."

McConnell's statement ended with a jab at the president: "Partisan speeches and promises of some future cuts after the President leaves office simply won’t suffice.”

In announcing Cantor as his pick, Boehner also dinged the president on the bipartisan talks.

“The issues we’re dealing with here are well known and well understood: Washington’s addiction to spending is threatening our economy and burying our children under a mountain of a debt," Boehner said in a statement.