A top Republican senator in the bipartisan “Gang of Six” seeking agreement to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade dropped out of the group Tuesday, saying that his colleagues weren’t willing to cut enough from benefit programs like Medicare.
Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said he doesn’t see how the group can reach agreement and that he would stop participating in its discussions.
“It’s got to be balanced. And I didn’t perceive where we were was balanced,” Mr. Coburn said. “I’m not planning on participating at this time. If things change, I will.”
The closely watched group has been working for months on a sweeping plan to address the deficit with a mix of new tax revenue and spending cuts. Supporters hoped for a bipartisan deficit-cutting plan that might gain momentum despite the partisanship dominating Capitol Hill.
The group will continue to meet without Mr. Coburn, several members said.
One of the reasons the Gang of Six was noteworthy was that its GOP members - Mr. Coburn and Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Mike Crapo of Idaho - were willing to agree to revenue increases of about $1 trillion over the coming decade as the price for getting Democrats to accept cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The group was united behind the idea - shared by President Obama’s debt commission and outside budget experts alike - that the recipe for cutting the deficit requires both increased tax revenue and cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, the rapidly growing federal health care programs whose costs threaten to swamp the government in coming years.
The group’s plan was expected to endorse a formula of $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax revenue increases over the coming decade. They called for a fundamental rewrite of the tax code that would lower income tax rates, paid for by scaling back dozens of popular tax breaks, including deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
A congressional aide familiar with the talks said some Democrats were angry that Mr. Coburn had brought 11th-hour demands on new Medicare cuts to the table.
Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, a member of the group, said it will meet again Wednesday despite the departure of Mr. Coburn. The other Democrats participating are Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Mark R. Warner of Virginia.
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