Two members of the supercommittee working to find consensus on a major deficit-reduction deal said Sunday that there's reason to be hopeful, but little margin for error.

"We still have time, but we have no time to waste," Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on Fox News. "It's at a difficult point. I think we've got a ways to go, but I hope we can close that gap."

Toomey and the eleven other members of the bipartisan panel face a Nov. 23 deadline to submit a plan for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts, which will get an up-or-down vote in Congress. If they fail to come up with a plan, an automatic trigger of $1.2 trillion in cuts occurs — half from federal domestic spending and half from defense spending.

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Disagreement over the size of cuts to entitlement programs and whether to boost revenues to the federal government have complicated the deliberations.

"We're willing to raise a little more revenue, so we can reduce the deficit," Corbett said. You absolutely can do this in a way that will be pro-growth."

Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.), one of the Democrats on the panel, said he remained hopeful the committee would reach a resolution in time, but that his confidence was diminishing.





"I am not as certain as I was 10 days ago," Clyburn said.





Clyburn said the elements for a good resolution were there, and that he agreed with two-thirds of what Toomey had put on the table, but that the will to move forward was still lacking.

"Democrats have not coalesced around a plan," Clyburn said, later adding that Republicans also lacked a plan.

Clyburn said there is disagreement over whether closing loopholes amounts to a tax increase, and over how savings will be calculated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

"We've got to come up with a plan that CBO will score, not one that Pat Toomey will dream about," Clyburn said.



