don kettl, thank you for your leadership. this is not a town meeting. if it were a town meeting, every seat here would be filled. indeed, when i held a town meeting on health care, there were 1500 people in the auditorium. and the subject we were discussing was not as important as the subject we're discussing today. it was not, perhaps, as consequential certainly in the long term as the subject we discuss today. and i want to congratulate those with this spire effort to educate -- entire effort to educate our public and to look for solutions. it's easy to lament reality what is, it's difficult to say what should be and how are we going to get there. we're here to discuss what i believe is america's single most pressing challenge, putting our fiscal house in order. america's accumulation of debt is a common danger, and it's one that ought to engage the best efforts of liberals and conservatives alike. because while all of us here have our own view on the proper role of government, the facts do not have an ideology. the course we are on leads to debt that