“Grand Bargain” mania set to sweep Washington again

[DonViejo]

Deficit hawk Pete Peterson and Senate moderates are gearing up for a lousy debt deal. Would Obama go along?

If Barack Obama wins reelection, the question for liberals is whether he’ll rejoin his unfortunate crusade for a Grand Bargain. We came dangerously close in 2011, and the coming “fiscal cliff” threatens to bring us to the brink yet again. And Pete Peterson will be there, the minute the election ends, to help push Washington to Fix The Deficit.

Pete Peterson, as Ryan Grim reports, is at it again. He is throwing millions of dollars at yet another group — an impeccably bipartisan one, as always — devoted to selling both regular Americans and the political elite on the idea that our single most pressing national problem is the national debt.

Democrat Ed Rendell and Republican Judd Gregg are the co-chairs of “The Campaign to Fix the Debt,” run by Peterson’s Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit also co-chaired by various moderate former members of Congress from both parties. Peterson has donated $5 million to the new campaign.

In one sense, it’s a colossal waste of money: In terms of elite opinion, Peterson won years ago, and with the public as a whole, all the money in the world has of yet been unable to convince anyone that destroying Social Security and Medicare is a sensible idea. He’s been at this for years, and donated probably nearly a billion dollars all told (he spent half-a-billion dollars between 2007 and 2011), and still Americans don’t particularly want to fix the deficit by cutting services that keep old people alive.

Continue reading:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/grand_bargain_mania_set_to_sweep_washington_again/

[vi5]

1. Would Obama go along?

What a ridiculous question. He'll be leading the charge.

He's got my vote. He's got my money. But I absolutely am prepared for the fact that once the election is done if he wins a second term that he will continue his bipartisan, grand bargain mania. I have no doubt the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will be extended, I have no doubt that without needing the liberal vote for re-election that he'll double down on education "reform", social security "reform" and medicare "reform".

Maybe he'll prove my cynicism wrong. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

[newfie11]

2. I hope your wrong but

I also am unsure what he will do once elected. Yes I am voting for him.