Last week, it was reported that Senate and House leaders are becoming more directly involved with the Joint Select Committee (supercommittee) amid growing concern the panel's members could be deadlocked. As such, talks began between top aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-NV). The supercommittee also met with members of the Senate’s “Gang of Six,” which produced a deficit reduction plan earlier this year, although it failed to attract significant support.

The panel has until November 23 to approve a plan to reduce the deficit over the next decade by at least $1.2 trillion. However, there continues to be major disagreements on revenue changes and entitlement reform, which likely need to be addressed if the committee is to hit the $1.2 trillion saving mark. However, in order to provide the Congressional Budget Office with enough time to score any agreement, such a plan would have to be completed much earlier than November 23. One option being considered in the hopes of providing additional time to address the federal government’s deficit would be for the committee offer instructions to the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee to complete some kind of a tax overhaul by sometime next year. On this possibility, Senator Max Baucus (D-ND), a member of the supercommittee, said he expected any agreement by the supercommittee would lay the groundwork for an overhaul of the tax code, which he has been discussing with his House counterpart, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (see below).