serious. >> harvard professor ken rogoff is a former chief economist for the international monetary fund. ken, listen to this with me. republican senator kay bailey hutchison said we're about to find out how serious the obama administration is about reducing spending. listen to what she said. >> you do the thingshat are essential. this is where the administration is going to be tested. if they start doing the chicken little thing by not paying social security recipients or people in our military or interest on our debt and instead choose to cut the things that will hurt the most but not the things that they could cut responsibly, that's going to be the test that they're not serious. >> ken, she's talking about a test. is this a logical test? if you strongly believe that spending needs to be cut or taxes need to be raised or somehow the budget needs to be dealt with, is this the way to keep the administration's feet to the fire? >> i think this is nuts.