If they’re trying to avoid a downgrade, Standard & Poor’s has already stated they need to see $4 Trillion, nothing less. An not $4Trillion cut “in the out years”, but now, and demonstrably. So when the Democrats put it in a bill, that can be examined and debated, then we can know it’s more than a PR campaign.
By the way, doesn’t it seem plausible that the whole reason Democrats no longer put anything down on paper is because of Fox News, Talk Radio, Social Networks and the engaged Tea Party mean that the exposing of what they say vs. what they write down is easier to expose?