Brian Beutler November 14, 2011, 1:55 PM

To illustrate just how down to the wire negotiations of the deficit Super Committee have become, GOP leaders have gone entirely silent — even on the question of higher taxes.

At his weekly Capitol briefing with reporters Monday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) deftly swatted away about a dozen questions about the panel’s negotiations, or the likelihood that they’ll reach an agreement by the November 23 deadline set forth in the debt limit bill. The committee doesn’t need outside pressure from him, he said.

This included my own question about tax increases. President Obama has pledged to veto deficit legislation that doesn’t match every dollar in entitlement benefit cuts with a dollar in tax revenue taken from wealthy Americans. I asked Cantor if a Super Committee report meeting that standard could pass the Republican House. He declined to answer.

This is a significant departure for Republican leaders, many of whom have in the past said tax increases should be off the Super Committee’s table. Here’s Cantor on September 20:

“What happened in the Biden discussions is that it broke down on the question of tax rate increases,” he said. “The same discussion that the President prompted yesterday occurred back then. We need to stay away from that discussion because tax rate increases right now are a job killer.”

And in a September speech before the Economic Club of Washington, DC, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said “Tax increases, I think, are off the table.” Hard lines like that have contributed to the gridlock on the panel, and increased the chances that the panel will fail and that the enforcement mechanism of deep cuts to defense programs and Medicare providers will be triggered. In that sense, it’s no surprise they’re ratcheting down the rhetoric.

Defense Spending, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Medicare, Super Committee, Taxes