Thirty-six senators from both sides of the aisle are encouraging the so-called super committee to "go big" and cut $4 trillion from future deficits rather than the mere $1.5 trillion in reductions over 10 years that they're tasked to find.

During a press conference Thursday, the bipartisan group spanning the ideological spectrum from Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to Ron Johnson, R-Wis., signed up to "encourage and support" the super committee, encouraging comprehensive tax reform -- reducing deductions and using at least some of the proceeds to lower tax rates.

"Be brave. Be bold. Go big," said Sen. read more »

With Republicans faulting President Obama for failing to offer a deficit-reducing budget, some Democrats are defending the president while noting that half of the 12 elected members of Obama's doomed deficit commission are still on the job and looking for deeper cuts.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was one of 18 individuals appointed to Obama's deficit commission, which failed to reach a 14-member supermajority in December to advance recommendations for Congress to consider on reducing the debt.

Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Sunday that some of the members of the group have reconvened to take a second look at recommendations that would make deeper cuts than Obama's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1...

Congressional Democrats and top Obama administration officials mounted a last-ditch effort Wednesday for the DREAM Act, though the immigration bill is almost certainly doomed in the Senate today.

Democrats said they’re close to picking up all the votes needed to pass the measure in the House. But passage in the Senate is unlikely. The bill’s most ardent backers say they can’t guarantee the 60 votes needed to advance the bill to the floor.
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“I think we’ve made some progress,” said Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill), the chief sponsor of the Senate version of the DREAM Act. “We don’t know until we call it for a vote”...

Congressional leaders of both parties suggested Sunday that they could reach a deal to extend all Bush-era tax rates as early as this week and that it would include an agreement by Republicans to also extend unemployment benefits for millions of jobless Americans.

"I think that most folks believe that the recipe would include at least an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are unemployed and an extension of all of the tax rates for all Americans for some period of time," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican. "I think an agreement could be reached in the relatively near future."

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, acknowledged that negotiations are "moving in that direction," though he said this was against his judgment and added that he could not accept a deal in Congress' lame-duck session that failed to include extended jobless benefits...

Washington (CNN) -- Congress will miss President Obama's deadline to enact health care reform by the end of the year, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday.

Illinois' Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he hopes, at best, to pass the Senate's version of a health care bill by that time.

If the Senate manages to pass a bill, a congressional conference committee would need to merge the House and Senate proposals into a consensus version requiring final approval from each chamber before moving to Obama's desk to be signed into law.

Durbin's assessment came as former President Clinton made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to discuss the health care issue with Senate Democrats...