The politics of cutting the debt

Jim Kessler, co-founder of Third Way, a non-partisan policy organisation in Washington DC, tells the FT’s James Politi that Washington is only now starting the real debate on deficit reduction. Mr Kessler says he expects to see piecemeal attempts to cut spending in the next year, but predicts Republicans and Democrats will not take on most of the large-scale spending cuts recommended by President Obama’s commission on debt reduction.