Generally in this town, people serve on a committee at least a few days before threatening to quit. But underscoring the incredibly difficult task before the 12-member bipartisan Congressional committee charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, one of the six Republicans on the panel, told a conservative group on Thursday that he was already pondering his potential exit.

“When we had our first meeting, the chairman asked, ‘Well, what do we think about defense spending?’” said Mr. Kyl, describing a meeting with the six Republican members. He was talking to a group gathered for a symposium called “Defending Defense,” a joint effort of the Foreign Policy Initiative, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, all conservative groups. “And I said, ‘I’m off the committee if we’re going to talk about further defense spending.’ First we did discretionary spending in the budget act. Second, defense was half of that, even though it isn’t half the budget, obviously. And, third, we can’t afford anymore, and that’s what your defense secretary, past and current, and others, have said. So we’re not going there.” Read more…