Cantor calls on Obama to make “smarter cuts” instead of raise taxes

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called on President Obama and Congress to agree to "smarter cuts" instead of raising taxes to fend off the  billions of dollars that are set to be slashed from the budget on the new sequestration deadline of March 1.

Cantor told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the sequester, which was designed by both Congress and the White House, is “not the best way to go about trying to control spending.”

"The problem is every time you turn around, the answer is to raise taxes," Cantor said according to POLITICO.

"He just got his tax hike on the wealthy. And you can't in this town every three months raise taxes. Again, every time, that's his response."

"We've got a spending problem, everybody knows it," he continued. "The House has put forward an alternative plan, and there's been no response in any serious way from the [Democratic-controlled] Senate and the White House. And it's time, we've really got to do it."

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The scheduled cuts to the budget were supposed to take effect on January 1 but were delayed by three months.

If no new agreement is made, $110 billion in annual cuts will take effect on October 1 and continue for the next eight years, reports Forbes. The cuts would be deepest in military spending as well as other domestic programs, such as education and Medicare.

On February 5, President Obama again called on Congress to come up with a new plan before the March 1 deadline and left the door open to more tax increases.

"I think this balanced mix of spending cuts and tax reform is the best way to finish the job of deficit reduction," the President said.