mr. sperling. i mean, very quickly, has he got his gander back again? do you think he's up and running for the forthcoming election battle? >> if you're someone like me meeting with him every day, you don't feel like he's ever lost it. i mean, there are times when if you want to do what's right for your country, you have to try to strike compromises. you have to try to take the temperature down and work and try to reach the grand compromise and the grand bargain. that's part of governing, part of being responsible. but he's never lost his fundamental view that led him to run for president in the first place, which is we have an economy that has not been working for middle class families for a long time, even before this deep financial crisis. and he is here not only to help dig us out but to chart a new course where we're seeing shared prosperity again, and not the middle class feeling like they're getting left behind because our economy is serving and our government and our politics are serving the special interests and those who are most well connecte

mr. sperling, they're essentially saying we can't get our way entirely. itis challenge.dent is going to do business. remember, wolf, the approval of the president is weighing down the economy. the approval of the congress saul most subterranean. the republicans know that. they're on the ballot trying to defend that republican majority in the house. to be fully obstructionist is heading into the campaign year afoul of the american people. there is an opportunity to do business down the road. the republicans will say no to the president's specific proposals, especially the ones they can call stimulus, but look for potential compromise down the road. leader kantor today saying we're not flatly opposed to infrastructure spending. we just want to see how do you pay for it. you heard kate talking about speaker boehner, no one republican response. part of that is a slight to the president. all these members of the house are up for re-election. some need to say i'm open to some of the president's proposals because their district may not be conservative as one of their republican

mr. sperling, some think we are seeing a double dip recession. so what's the thinking?, the thinking is that we are not going to have any revenues go up this year or next even on high income americans. so what the president was saying was that we need to take bold action now to get our growth going, again, we've seen people estimating growth to be 2% higher, difference between a weak recovery and a strong recovery, two million jobs. this just came out today from mark zanby, a former advisor to the mccain campaign said this could create 1.9 million jobs. we are not -- even though we believe taxes on people like warren buffet, the most fortunate, have to be part of us getting our long term deficit down, even there, we're not calling for any revenue increases this year and next. we want to do everything we can to get this recovery to take hold. >> so how -- so you tell me, gene, you're the great numbers guy. tell the american people how this is going to be paid for. everybody wants a great new bridge and great new road but is it at the cost of our deficit? is this another