I caught him after the vote this afternoon; much of our conversation took place off-camera.

There is a lot of talk about a deficit control commission that would be tasked with setting the United States’ fiscal house in order. In short, the commission would make recommendations and then the House and Senate would be faced with an up or down vote – no amendments would be allowed; there could be no filibuster.

Progressives worry about this because virtually every deficit hawk sees entitlement programs (social security and medicare) as ripe for the picking. Very few deficit hawks are expected to come to the table with revenue generation (increasing taxes on those that can afford to pay them) in mind.