Compromise is the word of the day at the White House, especially as some Democrats are publicly expressing disapproval of the deal struck over the weekend

The White House dispatched the president’s top economic adviser to make the TV rounds Monday, in part an effort to calm nerves from several Democrats that Republicans got the better of the deal.

Gene Sperling, the chief White House Economic Adviser, had this to say:

As the president said many times, we have divided government. We had the responsibility to make sure that didn't mean dysfunctional government that ended up hurting our economy. This is a compromise. . . This makes sure that a good amount of that deficit reduction comes from security and defense spending, so there's more shared sacrifice in how we're cutting spending. It helps protect college scholarships for people who are . . . on Pell grants.

Sterling also suggested tax revenues could come from the upcoming special committee’s recommendations this fall, a sentiment the president agreed with in his statement.

When you have an incentive that makes both sides have to come to the table, this president believes very strongly that the American people will side with him that the type of big deficit reduction we should do should not put all of the burden on seniors or students or working families as some of the republican plans would like to do, but does require shared sacrifice and that means tax reform that asks the corporate tax expenditures, those most well off to be part of the solution and this president will insist on that. He did not give up anything in that goal of shared sacrifice in this package.

In the second stage of the deal, a special joint committee of Congress will recommend further deficit reduction steps totaling $1.5 trillion or more by the end of November, with Congress obligated to vote on the panel's proposals by the end of the year.