Democrats, Republicans far apart on deficit deal – BusinessWeek http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9R21H3O0.htm

“We need to find out whether our Republican colleagues want to continue to negotiate or whether they’ve drawn a hard line in the sand,” said supercommittee Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. “The question is whether they’ve kind of said `take it or leave it.’ “

Van Hollen made his comments after co-chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told CNBC Tuesday evening that the bipartisan debt supercommittee is “somewhat stymied for the moment” because panel Democrats are insisting on tax increases of up to $1 trillion in exchange for cost curbs on rapidly spiraling benefit programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

For those that aren’t aware, every single Republican on the comittee signed a pledge to never raise taxes.  They have to be lie in one way or another here, or face a public that now sees a pretty obvious solution.

Oh, and for everyone who thinks Republicans will *ever* let a tax cut expire without calling it a tax increase, you were wrong.