"You get Republicans being pushed more and more by the base not to compromise on taxes, while Democrats have been going back to the old scare tactics on entitlement reform, that Republicans plan to privatize Social Security and Medicare," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the nonprofit Concord Coalition, which advocates balanced budgets. "Even though there's a mandate from the public to deal with the deficit, there isn't a mandate coming out of this election to compromise or make hard choices."