In return, the Republicans have offered essentially nothing. Oh, they say they’re willing to increase revenue by closing loopholes — but they’ve refused to specify a single loophole they’re willing to close. So if there’s a breakdown in negotiations, the blame rests entirely with one side of the political divide.

Given that reality, think about the effect when people like Mr. Schultz respond by blaming both sides equally. They may sound virtuously nonpartisan, but what they’re actually doing is rewarding intransigence and extremism — which, in the current context, means siding with the G.O.P.

I’m willing to believe that Mr. Schultz doesn’t know what he’s doing. The same can’t be said, however, about Fix the Debt.

You might not know it reading some credulous reporting, but Fix the Debt isn’t some kind of new gathering of concerned citizens. On the contrary, it’s just the latest addition to a group of deficit-scold shops supported by billionaire Peter Peterson, a group ranging from think tanks like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to the newspaper The Fiscal Times. The main difference seems to be that this gathering of the usual suspects is backed by an impressive amount of corporate cash.

Like all the Peterson-funded groups, Fix the Debt seems much more concerned with cutting Social Security and Medicare than with fighting deficits in general — and also not nearly as nonpartisan as it pretends to be. In its list of “core principles,” it actually calls for lower tax rates — a very peculiar position for people supposedly horrified by the budget deficit. True, the group calls for revenue increases via unspecified base broadening, that is, closing loopholes. But that’s unrealistic. And it’s also, as you may have noticed, the Republican position.

What’s happening now is that all the Peterson-funded groups are trying to exploit the fiscal cliff to push a benefit-cutting agenda that has nothing to do with the current crisis, using artfully deceptive language — as in that MacGuineas letter — to hide the bait and switch.

Mr. Schultz apparently fell for the con. But the rest of us shouldn’t.