{mosimage} Former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson of Cody has been tapped by President Barack Obama to help lead a new commission to address the mounting federal deficit.Today (Thursday), Obama will sign an executive order creating the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Simpson traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to be on hand for the formal ceremony at the White House.

“We'll get the usual Washington stuff: ‘Why are you doing it? You know you're going to fail,'” said Simpson in a telephone interview. “But we're doing this for our grandkids. We're here for our grandkids.”

The Republican Simpson will act as co-chair of the 18-member commission alongside former White House Chief of Staff Urskine Bowles, a moderate Democrat from North Carolina who served in the Clinton administration. The former Wyoming senator was invited to participate by Vice President Joe Biden, who Simpson calls “an old friend,” and with whom he served in the U.S. Senate for nearly two decades.

Late Wednesday, Simpson said he wasn't sure how the commission would proceed.

“At this point, I don't know. We'll meet tonight with the Treasury Secretary (Tim Geithner), Laurence Meyer (former governor of the Federal Reserve Board) and Urskine, and we'll discuss how to go about this. You don't know what's going to happen. Who knows: Maybe the Republicans won't appoint anybody, but we're going to move this ball forward.”

With the federal deficit hitting a record-high $1.4 trillion last year and expected to hit close to $1 trillion each year for the foreseeable future, Simpson agrees the need to make changes is dire.

“Whatever you care about in your own life — whether it's education or whatever — your life will be eaten up by this unsustainable thing you just can't stop,” he said.

“I won't be living in Washington while this is going on. We'll figure out how often we'll meet,” he added. “We'll have a staff, and we'll begin to put together some real figures so we can get some information in front of the American people.

“Republicans can bitch and bitch about ‘no new taxes,' and the Democrats can stand there and say, ‘You can't cut spending for the little people,' but you can't just stand there at gridlock while Rome is burning.”

The Senate earlier this year rejected a plan that would have created a similar, bipartisan commission. The plan was voted down by senators from both parties, some of whom initially supported the panel to deal with deficit reduction.

Simpson has made it clear the panel is not looking to place blame for the current economic disaster, but he also said, “There won't be any way to avoid the painful decisions (such as cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits) ... Social Security, in 20 years, it will tail off. It won't pay out. We'll say there are two ways to fix it: Raise the payroll tax or reduce the benefits. And they'll sit there and screech.”

Congress will not be required to act on the commission's recommendations, which could be many months in the making. But Simpson hopes to provide information for politicians and the American public to utilize in making future decisions.

“Your kids will be picking grit with the chickens,” Simpson said, “if we don't do something about this.”

(Associated Press reports also contributed to this story.)