Key Democrat: No Debt Deal Minus New Tax Revenue

A day after House Speaker John Boehner rejected any new taxes from the joint "super committee" looking to cut the deficit $1.5 trillion, a key House Democrat said there will be no deal without taxes. What's more, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, warned that the deal won't be completed on time, possibly triggering automatic budget cuts.

[Read stories about the deficit and national debt.]

"By Christmas, I will be sleeping on a cot in Congress," Sanchez, a former financial analyst and member of the Joint Economic Committee, told a group at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark.

Sanchez, speaking about the "super committee" pulled together by House and Senate leaders to come up with historic spending cuts, said that every step they take will be "perilous and crazy" and that its work is "laborious and difficult," according to our reporter Suzi Parker.

"By Nov. 23, it is going to be difficult to have a solution," added Sanchez. The super committee, which is different from Sanchez' Joint Economic Committee, has until Nov. 23 to propose cuts and Congress must hold an up or down vote by Dec. 23.

[Read: Congress Next Fight: Appropriations.]

Sanchez said that the only piece Congress has control over is discretionary spending unless it moves into entitlement reform, which includes Medicare, Social Security and military pensions.

But, she said, "That's politically a very difficult thing to do."

Instead, she said taxes have to play a part. "I believe for the committee to come up with something, they are going to come up with revenue," Sanchez told the Clinton School students.

She expressed frustration at her congressional colleagues who don't understand economics. "I actually get who is moving the money," she said. "A lot of times, I can't get my colleagues to listen."

• See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.
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• See political cartoons on the national debt.

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