URBANA — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin wants his colleagues on a deficit-reduction "supercommittee" to think of people like Mike Short and Terri Daniels as they debate deep spending cuts in the federal budget.

Illinois' senior senator visited the Eastern Illinois Foodbank in Urbana on Friday to dramatize the need for a federal safety net for the poor, both working and jobless.

Short, 65, who lost his telephone-repair business in 2008, hasn't been able to find another job and is living on Social Security. Daniels, a divorced mom of two, works full-time as an Urbana teacher's aide but has to use government food assistance and health insurance to make ends meet.

"More than half the families in America are living paycheck to paycheck," Durbin said, citing a study that showed half of American families could not come up with $2,000 cash within 30 days.

But in Washington, every debate starts with the words "cut spending," said Durbin, who served on President Obama's fiscal reform commission and was among the "Gang of Six" who crafted an alternative proposal to cut the nation's debt in recent budget negotiations.

Durbin said he understands the need to straighten out the federal budget to sustain growth. But Congress has to protect the most vulnerable Americans, including people who have lost jobs, have mental illness or other health issues.

"I'm concerned that we don't go too far in cutting the safety net for families in America as we look for ways to cut spending," Durbin said, including food stamps and government commodity programs that supply food banks nationwide.

Durbin said the congressional supercommittee asked to identify more than $1 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade includes "good people," but their success will depend on their ability to work together, compromise and re-evaluate some "long-held beliefs."

Looming over the panel is a Nov. 23 deadline that will trigger automatic cuts in entitlement programs and military spending if they fail to reach an agreement.

If they walk in with positions that are non-negotiable, "it's gonna fail," he said.

"The only honest way to deal with this is to put everything on the table, including revenue," Durbin said. "The wealthiest, most affluent families in America should be asked to sacrifice, like everybody else."

Durbin argued against cuts in Medicaid, the government-funded insurance for the poor, because it covers "the most vulnerable people in America," including 52 percent of American children. He said there are ways to carefully cut Medicare costs, but emphasized that the coverage is vital for 40 million American seniors.

Asked what he would cut, Durbin said he supported reductions to several programs he has backed in the past, including subsidies for the ethanol industry and small airports. It's time to be "brutally honest" about what the country can afford, including on military spending, he said.

"We have a tax code that's indefensible," he added, with billions of dollars in tax breaks that help wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes. "That is as bad as any earmarked program that they criticize."

James Hires, executive director of the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, said his agency relies heavily on volunteers to distribute food to 47,000 people a month — double the number from 2004 — but federal support "makes the difference."

The food bank received 1.8 million pounds of food through the Department of Agriculture's commodities program last year, but that amount will drop back to 2007 levels, 600,000 pounds, this year with the end of the economic stimulus. Likewise, funding for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (food stamps) has dropped and could be targeted again in budget cuts, Durbin said.

Hires said every $1 spent through SNAP generates $1.73 for the local economy.

As a veteran with a degree and full-time job, Daniels said she never thought she'd be eligible for SNAP benefits. She found out about it while volunteering at her church, and once she qualified, the first thing she did was buy a cart full of fresh fruits and vegetables.

She loves her job because the hours allow her to be with her kids after school and avoid child-care costs, but it barely pays enough to cover food, utilities and taxes. She has no debt, and only plans to stay on government benefits until her kids are older and she can work more hours.

"It's just the season of life we're in," she said, adding "I can see the future for us."

Short and his wife, a former medical transcriptionist, both lost their jobs in 2008. They used up their savings, declared bankruptcy, and are now surviving on $1,500 a month in Social Security benefits.

He visits the St. Vincent DePaul food pantry every other week, and said the first time he went he "was so self-conscious. I felt like I don't deserve it. I wasn't raised this way, to depend on others. I was raised to take care of myself."

He estimates he and his wife applied for 200 to 300 jobs, with no luck.

"These are not people who want to be dependent," Durbin said.

Also Friday, Durbin called on Syrian leader Hafez Assad to step down, citing his "reign of terror" against his own people. "He needs to go."