Like a popular horror movie serial killer:  every time you think the idea of a bipartisan commission to cut the social safety net has died, somehow it manages to come back in a new more dangerous form. This time Harry Reid is trying to revive a Catfood Commission II as part of debt ceiling deal.

From the Washington Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is working with McConnell on this approach. Aides said the two are discussing a strategy that would pair McConnell’s debt-limit proposal with at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts identified through bipartisan talks that Vice President Biden has led in recent weeks.

The deal also could create a committee of 12 lawmakers who would be assigned with identifying trillions of dollars in additional savings. The panel’s recommendations would be fast-tracked to votes in the House and the Senate and would not be subject to amendment, a process similar to the one Congress uses for closing military bases.

When progressives wanted the public option fast-tracked through the Senate by putting it in a reconciliation bill, Harry Reid simply choose not to do it. Yet now, Reid is working on a way to potentially allow a devastating package of cuts in Medicare and Social Security to move through the Senate at lightening speed.

Funny how is it that things always seems to work this way? The precious Senate rules can’t be bent — unless it is to force regular people to sacrifice.

We will see if The Commission Strikes Back  makes it into any final deal but given President Obama’s obsession with the bipartisan deficit commission,

I suspect it is at least a decent possibility.