Democrats wouldn’t vote for spending cuts. Republicans wouldn’t vote for higher taxes or even closing tax loopholes.

But we have maintained from the start that it would take a combination of tax revenue and spending cuts to make a meaningful difference in combating the nation’s massive federal debt.

Just such a plan emerged Tuesday when the five remaining members of the U.S. Senate’s “Gang of Six” put forward a $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan.

The new proposal would reduce the deficit over the next 10 years and increase tax revenue by closing a variety of special tax breaks.

We were encouraged last week to see that both of Maine’s Republican senators were open to just such an eventuality.

“We are not talking about raising tax rates,” Sen. Olympia Snowe told the Bangor Daily News. “But there are a lot of tax credits that are not needed and should be repealed.”

Sen. Susan Collins pointed out that Congress already has voted to phase out the tax subsidy for ethanol production, saving about $6 billion a year.

She told the BDN there are many other agricultural subsidies that should be repealed.

“We spend billions of dollars a year in subsidies that go to some very wealthy corporate farmers,” she told the BDN. “It has always troubled me that if you grow blueberries or potatoes you get absolutely no price subsidy, but if you grow corn, wheat, soybeans or rice you get a guaranteed price and the taxpayers pay the bill.”

She’s right.

But even if we cut every farm subsidy or closed every tax loophole, we still need to make long-term budget cuts to curb our annual deficits and eventually trim our national debt.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, a Democrat, told the BDN any solution would require more revenue and spending cuts.

“That includes some cuts to programs I don’t want to cut,” he said, “because we have to solve this.”

That’s the right attitude, and we hope it is shared by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, also a Democrat.

As we have said before, this is a long-term national problem. The best solution will be one that spreads sacrifice and pain as evenly as possible.

And that’s broadly the idea behind the Gang of Six plan.

An online summary says it would stabilize the debt by 2014 and reduce publicly held debt to 70 percent of gross domestic product by 2021. It is now approaching 100 percent.

It also contains a provision requiring a 67-vote supermajority in the Senate to circumvent spending caps.

About 74 percent of the plan’s goal would come from spending cuts and 26 percent from higher revenue.

While the details of the plan are still emerging, this is the sort of compromise that we have favored from the start, spreading the sacrifice of budget reform as widely as possible.

[email protected]

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.