Lawmakers agree: Budget sequester isn't good

Lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress agreed Sunday that if sequestration budget cuts go into effect next month, there will be a negative impact on the economy and the country as a whole.

In separate appearances on NBC's "Meet The Press," Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, both said they don't want the sequester cuts to take place. They suggested different ways to deal with the series of automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, spread out over the next decade, which are set to kick in on March 1.

Cantor, like most Republicans, wants to fix the nation's fiscal woes without raising taxes, a move he said President Barack Obama favors.

"The tax fight for the president means higher taxes, more revenue," Cantor said. "We can't be raising taxes in this town every three months."

But Durbin, a close Obama ally, said more taxes are what's needed to solve the problem.

"The president believes, and I agree, within tax reform, we can find additional savings in the next ten years. We can use that to put towards deficit reduction and keep this economy moving forward," Durbin said.

The tax issue is a major sticking point when lawmakers discuss these sequestration cuts, and with less than three weeks to go before they take effect, Cantor said a breakthrough doesn't look promising.

"The president, you know, he's the one who proposed the sequester in the first place. So again, I'm questioning where this thing is going because he's not moved in a serious way, but we remain anxiously waiting for him to come to the table to work with us to solve this problem," Cantor said.

But Durbin later countered that Obama proposed the sequester as a strategy to break a deadlock in Congress.

"When the president proposed the sequester, it was as an incentive to those of us in Congress to work together on a bipartisan basis to solve these problems. It was supposed to be so awful that the 'super committee' would finally reach bipartisan agreement. But because they completely rejected revenue, it never happened," Durbin said.

That remark was echoed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who said on "Fox News Sunday" the sequester was "a bad idea, all around."

"It is something that is out of the question," Pelosi said.

However the nation arrived at this point, the fact remains that the economy is nearing yet another crisis, Durbin said.

"Sequestration was designed as a budget threat, not as a budget strategy. And I think all of us understand if it goes forward in less than three weeks, it's going to have a dramatic, negative impact on many agencies, equally important to the economy," said Durbin.