Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) said President Obama would find Republicans a "willing negotiating partner" in redistributing budget cuts if he accepted that tax increases would not be part of a deal to offset the sequester Monday on "MSNBC Live."
"The cuts themselves are going to occur," Cole said. "They are written into the law just like the tax increase in January and the fiscal cliff was written into law. We worked with the president and redistributed those taxes. We should work here and redistribute the cuts. If the president will do that, he will find a willing negotiating partner."
Cole said there would be time down the road to have another negotiation over the budget and debt ceiling, but there was no room now for additional revenue.
"The president needs to accept that and work with Republicans to redistribute the [cuts]," Cole said. "That's an easy thing to do. This is less than 2.5 percent of the entire federal budget. $85 billion and $3.5 trillion total budget. So we can certainly do a better job of where the cuts come. We can make them much, much less painful, but they do need to occur. We're running trillion-dollar deficits. We need to get our fiscal house in order."