Political Wire:  “[T]he  Wall Street Journal reports Republican leaders ‘are pushing what looks like a relatively painless method of slowing federal spending, one that alters how the government calculates annual cost-of-living increases for an array of programs.’”

Bob Corker on FOX: "There is a growing group of folks that are looking at this and realizing that we don't have a lot of cards on the tax issue before year end. A lot of people are putting forth a theory and I actually think it has merit, where you go ahead give the president the two percent increase that he is talking about -- the rate increase on the top two percent -- and all of a sudden the shift goes back to entitlements."

“After two years of near-weekly meetings, countless conference calls, breakfasts, and dinners spent batting back and forth deficit-reduction ideas, the bipartisan ‘Gang of Eight’ senators is shifting its focus, now that the deadline for a fiscal-cliff deal is just days away,” National Journal writes. “Instead of trying to craft its own deal, the group is putting its considerable energy toward encouraging a budget compromise between House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama, according to aides of the senators. Should Obama and Boehner arrive at a deal, the group will seek to rally momentum for its passage on Capitol Hill—where it may need considerable help—although it’s questionable how much cover the senators could give a package that might come under siege from both conservatives and liberals in the House who blanch at a tax-hike/entitlement-cut deal.”