From the office of Senator Bob Corker:

In an interview Monday about ongoing budget and debt discussions on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” Senator Corker said Democrat efforts to increase spending levels beyond the budget caps put in place as a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act were a “major distraction” and “not helpful to the process.”

“It was really a major distraction that Democrats would want to try to bust the budget caps… The reason you have these forcing moments is to reduce spending, to put in place spending reforms that make our nation stronger. For them to … move in the other direction was not helpful to this process,” said Corker.

For the first time since the 1950s, the Budget Control Act, passed by Congress and signed into law in 2011, helped reduce total government spending for two consecutive years. It will cause non-emergency discretionary spending to be decreased from $1.090 trillion in 2011 to $967 billion this year. Corker has strongly urged his colleagues to “hang tough on the sequester” and not allow any deal to raise spending levels.

Corker remains hopeful that leaders in Washington will strike a deal to avoid default before the end of the week, stating, “I think finally, we may be on the right page today. I think [we were] moving there late last night and early this morning. And maybe –maybe – we’ll move beyond this. We do need to move beyond this.”