congressional reporter for the washington "post" ed o'keefe and washington reporter for the hill, amie parnes with the president's proposal first. it includes $1.6 trillion tax hikes over ten years, that's raising rates on the top 2%, making over $250,000. now this proposal also calls for $50 billion in immediate stimulus, and $400 million in long-term savings from the entitlement program. the gop says, this is just a wish list for the democrats and a nonstarter. can you explain where we are in all this? >> no, not really, i can't. i mean it's all a big mess right now, you know, they're in a stalemate apparently. the president is kind of optimistic. he says he's optimistic that there's going to be a deal by christmas. reporters are keeping our fingers crossed so we can actually head home for the holidays. i think washington is, too. but i think that, you know, everyone sort of is trying to figure out out. i think white house aides are telling me they are willing to compromise a little bit. but that was their initial wish list and now they're waiting for speaker boehner and republicans to kind