. >> matt benjamin. steve was pointing out an ugly scenario about how these legislators need bond vigilantes to show up and interest rates to spike to get them to move and cooperate. but i have an uglier scenario. because the dollar retains or even strengthens its reserve status, doubts about the euro et cetera, the bond vigilantes never show up. gradually, higher interest rates, bigger portion of our budgets going toward debt service, and in the long run, just a degraded standard of living. is that a scenario? >> very concerning. 20 years ago, which to me seems like yesterday, but probably most of the people in this room remember 20 years ago. say 1992. we had named the united states and we were without really equal at that time economically and militarily. we were able to support ourselves and most of the debt was held by american citizens. therefore, it revolved within the indigenous economy. now 50% of our debt is held by people who have a different view of the world perhaps than we do. a bunch of ot