Corker and Clyburn: looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

"It does appear that Speaker Boehner and the President are open to talking about revenues with entitlement reform. You've seen a number of Republicans backing revenues. Now what we need to see are real offers [from Democrats] of entitlement reform."

"We want to take a look at what we can do to Medicare and Medicaid, means testing, although we do means test Medicare now. I think we ought to expand means testing and I really think we can take a look at the way we compute the consumer price index."

The [Corker] proposal includes pro-growth federal tax reform, which generates more static revenue - mostly from very high-income Americans - by capping federal deductions at $50,000 without raising tax rates. It mandates common-sense reforms to the federal workforce, which will help bring its compensation in line with private-sector benefits, and implements a chained consumer price index across the government, a more accurate indicator of inflation. It also includes comprehensive Medicare reform that keeps in place fee-for-service Medicare without capping growth, competing side by side with private options that seniors can choose instead if they wish. Coupled with gradual age increases within Medicare and Social Security; the introduction of means testing; increasing premiums ever so slightly for those making more than $50,000 a year in retirement; and ending a massive "bed tax" gimmick the states use in Medicaid to bilk the federal government of billions, this reform would put our country on firmer financial footing and begin to vanquish our long-term deficit.