The Olympian reports this morning that, awed by the pending revenue forecast due this week (expected state revenues could be down as much as $2 billion), even state house Republicans aren't ruling out tax increases; though the main thing the GOP is suggesting now is getting rid of the Basic Health Plan, the Disability Lifeline, and ending health care for children if they can't document their legal residency. (Last year, liberals were able to stave off health care cuts for undocumented children.)

As we reported on Friday, the Democrats are already there .

The Republicans have floated a separate idea, though: a supercommittee, like the one in DC, to recommend a plan to find government savings. State Sen. Joseph Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield) the ranking Republican on the senate ways and means committee, announced the idea last week , but ways and means chair, Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), told PubliCola he thought the idea was political "posturing."

From the Olympian's article:

Even counting its rainy day fund, the state has just $163 million in reserves to last through June 2013. House Ways and Means chairman Ross Hunter is estimating the revenue downturn at between $1 billion and $2 billion. Hunter, a Medina Democrat, said the situation is much different than a year ago when broad agreement was reached on early cuts – and lawmakers had a one-day special session in December.

Hunter said the scale of the problem is daunting, noting that $2 billion in cuts are equivalent to removing all state support from the community and university systems (an outcome, he emphasized, won’t happen).

Alexander, the House GOP budget lead, favors a special session and said more than $200 million can be saved by eliminating the Basic Health Plan’s subsidized insurance for low-income workers, eliminating the Disability Lifeline for chronically unemployed people, and eliminating health coverage for children who can’t document their legal residency.

House Democrats’ leaders bounced around ideas for taxes at a meeting Wednesday, with potential targets ranging from increases in the sales tax to closure of tax exemptions like the ones banks receive for mortgage interest, Green said.