Can't we find a way to call a truce in all the partisan warfare? That's the question a panel of Republican and Democratic political heavyweights were asking at the Global Conference 2012 Tuesday night dinner session. Jobs and the economy are generally viewed as the top issues facing America, but the divisiveness between the two political parties may be an even greater threat, panelists said.

"Are we still a self-governing people?" asked Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. That's the serious question America is facing.

The top request Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) hears from his constituents these days is that "you guys gotta work something out," he said. "I hear about that everywhere, even to the exclusion of the economy." The two political parties to need to surrender "some of the poison we see," he added, and "stop demonizing" one another.

"We're all going to go down together if we don't start working together," added former Sen. Evan Bayh, who said it's a hard time to be a moderate in the Senate because any deviation from party loyalty is viewed as a betrayal, and those who think for themselves are "held up as pariahs."

The biggest issue looming in Congress - and the source of much of the divisiveness - is the coming fight over the federal budget.

"It's going to take a crisis" for the two parties to come together to address taxes, entitlement spending and the debt ceiling, Bayh said. We may see brinksmanship and market swings, but ultimately he believes "a grand bargain will happen" because "you can't let the country default," he said.

"We're in that crisis right now," Daniels shot back. If we wait until the crisis grows even more visible, we'll be past the point that we can recover, he added. "We're in a heck of a fix here."

Daniels called for means-tested entitlements as a way to save money. "Nobody in this room needs a Social Security check," he said.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he's optimistic the country can come together to solve its budget problems, just as it did during the financial crisis in 2008. "I absolutely believe it can happen."

Aside from the budget, health care is also a top issue, the panel agreed. If the Supreme Court strikes down the mandate for Americans to purchase health insurance, the entire plan will likely collapse, Casey said. It's unlikely Congress would take up the issue again anytime soon, Corker said. "The well is poisoned."

Daniels addressed rumors that he's being considered as a potential vice presidential candidate on the Mitt Romney ticket. He was just reading a magazine on the airplane, and "Courtney Love's psychic said I was the most likely," he said. "So that pretty much settles it."