Momentum appears to be building toward a grand compromise on reducing the budget deficit that could be based on recommendations from President Barack Obama’s debt commission, according to The Hill.com.

Senate Democrats will hear a pitch today for using the debt commission’s proposals from their leading budget hawk, who is trying to hammer home the message that both the legislative and executive branches must get serious about slashing the nation’s rising debt.

The presentation at the Senate Democratic retreat will come from Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Conrad dropped a reelection bid last month, saying he feared it would distract him from fixing America’s fiscal condition.

Conrad is arguing that both parties must embrace the debt commission plan as a starting point for seriously reducing the budget deficit. He has met with Obama’s budget director, Jack Lew, who was a key player in the tax deal reached between the White House and Senate Republicans in December, to discuss the budget.

Some Senate Republicans have also signaled a new openness to the commission’s recommendations, which included calls for entitlement reforms.
The Senate’s third-ranking Republican, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said Tuesday that he supports the effort to find a bipartisan solution based on the debt commission plan.

Separately, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky suggested entitlement reform could be on the table, though he said flatly that this could only happen with leadership from the president.

McConnell also warned that a deficit-reduction plan should include no tax increases. “We don’t have this problem because we tax too little,” he told reporters.