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U.S. President Barack Obama meets with congressional leaders including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Cabinet Room of the White House July 7, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Edmund Burke, a British political writer in the 1700’s, summed up the art of politics as compromise: “All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.” The $14 trillion federal budget deficit currently staring down lawmakers didn’t get there overnight, it was born out of decades of intractable policies like spending on the military, huge and costly entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, tax cuts and expensive wars. So when President Obama and Democrats from Congress meet with House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues this weekend, in search of a grand bargain to cut the deficit and increase the debt ceiling, they will be trying to pull off the nearly impossible. And compromise will have to be the ruling mentality of the negotiators in order to pull off a deal that will be politically difficult for all sides.

Democrats are incensed that President Obama has included possible cuts in Social Security and Medicare spending; Republicans still refuse to consider any kind of tax increases, and many in the Tea Party wing of the party will never vote to raise the debt ceiling no matter what kind of spending cuts are made. Is a grand bargain possible somewhere in the middle of these seemingly intractable positions?

Guests:

Tony Katz, original organizer of the Tea Party in Los Angeles; contributor to Fox News and host of the radio program “The Conversation” on the Pajamas Media network

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles); ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce