Cantor Open to Sequester Deal

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Republicans could be amenable to a sequester deal if cuts to entitlement programs are part of the package, reports the Hill.

“What we need to have happen is leadership on the part of this president and the White House, to come to the table finally and say 'we're going to fix the underlying problem that's driving our deficit,'” Cantor said.

“We know that is the entitlement programs and the unfunded liability that they are leaving on this generation and the next.”

The sequester, which went into effect earlier this year, imposed $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts but left entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare untouched.

“This fall is going to give us a great opportunity, I think, to all come together and try and tackle the real problem, which is the entitlements,” Cantor said.

According to the Huffington Post, Cantor believes spending cuts will only come about through direct bipartisan talks and not the heavy-handed implementation of sequester.

“We've always said sequester is not the best way to go about spending reductions,” Cantor said.

“It was, as you know, a default mechanism, because Congress couldn't do the job it was supposed to a couple of years ago.”