WASHINGTON -- The White House's proposed deficit talks with Congress appear to be unraveling before they've even begun. 
 
 House and Senate Republican leaders announced Tuesday that their sole appointees to the May 5th meeting would be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)--neither of whom are budget leaders and both of whom function largely as political mouthpieces for their party. GOP leaders also each opted to send only one appointee, instead of the requested four, to the meeting. 
 
 "I remain skeptical that the administration will take this effort seriously, especially after it all but ignored its previous debt commission and President Obama had to be dragged kicking and screaming to consider minimal spending cuts for the rest of this fiscal year," Cantor said in a statement. 
 
 "A serious effort to get our fiscal house in order is sorely needed, however, which is why I believe this commission should commence with a clearly defined target and purpose, under a time frame to produce that result -- so that it doesn't end up in the graveyard of previous commissions that failed to improve our nation's finances." 
 
 At the same time, some Democratic sources said their own party's picks for the meeting aren't as credible as they could be. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) only named a total of four appointees instead of eight: Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), House Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Assistant Democratic House Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.). But it's not the numbers that are the problem. 
 
 Pelosi's picks for the talks make the meeting "look silly" because Van Hollen and Clyburn "are just going to do what Pelosi wants, and she's not interested in compromise," said a senior Democratic aide. "The picks for this task force all reflect a lack of seriousness." 
 
 Obama called for the bipartisan talks during an April 13th address on fiscal policy and announced that Vice President Joseph Biden would take the lead. During his speech, the president bashed the House GOP budget proposal put forward by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and said he would not accept more tax breaks for the rich at the expense of entitlements. Ryan, who was seated in the audience during the speech, later called Obama's remarks "excessively partisan." 
 
 GOP leadership aides say there is nothing fishy about their picks for the White House meeting. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Republican leaders were "just trying to be efficient" by sending two appointees instead of eight; he called the White House's original proposal of 16 members "unwieldy." Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on why Cantor was tapped instead of Ryan. 
 
 Kyl has played a role in past negotiations with the White House: He was the top negotiator for Senate Republicans in the tax-cut talks with the White House in December. But Kyl threw up several roadblocks to passing the START treaty as part of the tax deal--a top priority to Obama--and the final deal was finally hatched privately between Biden and McConnell. 
 
 Reid and McConnell both passed over members of the Senate's "Gang of Six" for the deficit meeting. That group has been working for months on its own deficit-reduction plan and has grumbled about the White House moving forward with its fiscal plan without factoring in the work the group has done. 
 
 The first meeting is set to take place at the Blair House, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers met with Obama for a largely unproductive health care reform summit in 2010. ||||| Senator Kyl Drops Out of the Debt Talks, Leaving Zero Republicans at the Table 
 
 UPDATE: A Senior Democratic aide says, “Cantor and Kyl just threw Boehner and McConnell under the bus. This move is an admission that there will be a need for revenues and Cantor and Kyl don't want to be the ones to make that deal.” 
 
 ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: 
 
 Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., will also drop out of the debt talks, a source within his office confirms today. The Arizona Republican’s office will issue a formal statement shortly. 
 
 After House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) dropped out of the talks this morning, Senator Kyl was the lone Republican in the group left. And with his withdrawal late this morning, the group does not have a Republican negotiator left in the room. 
 
 The group was set to meet for the 11 th time this afternoon with Vice President Biden, their third meeting of the week. 
 
 The group started as six – but is now down to four members from Congress. The remaining members are: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Assistant House Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and House Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). ||||| Republicans moved in concert Thursday to disrupt deficit reduction talks with the White House, refusing to participate in some cases until President Barack Obama become more personally involved and resolves the divisive issue of taxes. 
 
 It is a high-stakes gamble designed to change the dynamic of the talks and push back hard on the revenue question — a central tenet for the party. But it also betrays a growing defensiveness inside the GOP, as the debt ceiling gets closer with no deal in sight and pressure for negotiators to consider defense cuts and eliminating some tax subsidies. 
 
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 reset VIDEO: Speaker on Cantor leaving talks VIDEO: Dems 'disapointed' POLITICO 44 
 
 House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) fired the first shot, announcing he was withdrawing immediately from the negotiations because of the tax question. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quickly followed with a broadside on the Senate floor, also keyed to the tax issue and titled “Where’s the President?” 
 
 “For weeks, lawmakers have worked around the clock to hammer out a plan that would help us to avert a crisis we all know is coming,” McConnell said. “So it’s worth asking: Where in the world has President Obama been for the last month.” 
 
 “What does he propose? What is he willing to do to reduce the debt and avoid the crisis that is building on his watch?” 
 
 In a joint statement with the chief Senate Republican negotiator, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, McConnell followed up by portraying Obama as a champion of higher taxes at the expense of “a bipartisan plan to address our deficit. He can’t have both. But we need to hear from him.” 
 
 Cantor had sent mixed signals earlier this week, first saying that he wanted greater involvement by the president and then insisting that he remained committed to the talks led by Vice President Joe Biden. His decision now appeared to catch some in the GOP leadership, including his fellow negotiator Kyl, by surprise. And it came just as Cantor has been on the defensive in the talks over Democratic demands for greater cuts from defense spending. 
 
 Adding to the intrigue was the almost Washington novel orchestration of the announcement. The Wall Street Journal was called in to get the news Thursday morning — the editorial pages of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper are famous for their anti-tax orthodoxy. And Cantor made his move just hours after a Wednesday night meeting at the White House between his sometimes rival, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and Obama, who are slated to take over the talks once the Biden negotiations have run their course.
– And then there were none: Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is joining Eric Cantor in his decision to skip Joe Biden's deficit-reduction talks, which means no Republicans are left on the panel, reports ABC News. The departures come as Mitch McConnell blasted President Obama on the Senate floor, notes Politico, which sees a "concerted effort" by the GOP to force the president to get personally involved in the talks. They've hit an impasse over Democrats' push for tax increases. "I would expect to hear from (Obama)," said Speaker John Boehner. "I think those talks could continue if they're willing to take the tax hikes off the table." One anonymous Democratic senator views Cantor's move this way: “He’s throwing the hot potato to Boehner because it was too hot for him." Biden canceled today's scheduled meeting after Cantor's announcement, reports the Hill. The remaining Democrats: Max Baucus, Daniel Inouye, James Clyburn, and Chris Van Hollen.