Pessimism grows as deadline looms in D.C.

WASHINGTON – With the clock ticking toward the deficit-reduction committee’s deadline, Sen. Pat Toomey this morning conceded failure is a likely outcome.

“It’s not impossible to reach an agreement but it’s going to be tough given where the clock is,” he said this morning during an appearance on CBS’s  Face the Nation.

Mr. Toomey, R-Pa., is a member of the committee and author of the latest plan on the table – one that Democrats have poo-pooed as being too heavy on cuts and too light on revenue. Still, Mr. Toomey portrays his plan as a bold compromise that reforms taxes.

Grover Norquist -- proponent of the no-tax pledge Mr. Toomey and others signed – has called the plan poison.

“It was a reach for us to put that on the table. Grover Norquist was very critical of this and of me in particular,” he said. “I’ve taken a lot of arrows for this.”

Mr. Toomey said he would have preferred a cut-only plan, but is willing to accept pro-growth revenue increases “if that was the price it would take to get Democrats to agree.”

The committee has until Wednesday night to agree to a plan, which then would go to the full House and Senate.