Democrats and Republicans Working Anew on Grand Bargain

Lawmakers are back at it this weekend, which is great news. But this effort could be derailed by the tea party if the "grand bargain" has both spending cuts and new taxes on the wealthier among us. As we all know, the tea party has been holding the entire nation hostage, first for a debt deal in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and second for an ideological deficit deal that doesn't include any kind of tax increases.

Even as President Obama and congressional leaders focus on a fallback plan to lift the nation’s debt ceiling, top Democrats and Republicans have begun to map a new way to craft the same sort of ambitious deficit-cutting plan they abandoned last week.

As part of the deal being discussed to raise the debt ceiling, leaders on Capitol Hill are forming an especially powerful congressional committee that would be charged with drawing up a new “grand bargain,” possibly by the end of the year. Read more at WaPo