Supercommittee failure?

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, is an influential member of the “Supercommittee” that has to find a way out of the nation’s debt crisis by next week, unless automatic cuts are to be set in motion. He said this week the committee may instead decide to set in place a framework for deficit reduction, in what would be a two-step process.

In this case, “two-step” is a nice way of saying “We can’t figure this out so we want to kick the can again.” Or, in other words, they want to make some easy choices now and hope someone else can make the tough ones later.

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Eric Cantor, says there will be a deal. He’s influential, but he’s not an actual member of the committee. (Read about it here.)

Hensarling said CNN’s “State of the Union,” “There could be a two-step process that would hopefully give us pro-growth tax reform.”

Meanwhile, the committee apparently is divided between Democrats who want to raise $1 trillion in new revenue and Republicans who would agree to $500 billion, along with a comprehensive tax overhaul.

The big news there is that Republicans are willing to raise revenue at all. Tea party House members already have said that’s a non-starter.

My question is whether the announcement of a partial deal — a framework — would be good enough to stave off the automatic cuts. Or would it be seen merely as politicians doing what they always do, at least lately — avoiding decisions that require compromise?