dr. brannan. i think that might be a way to get it done. otherwise, we would be packed to death on the finance committee. -- pecked to death on the finance committee. if we have a long, drawn-out fight on this 2% payroll tax cut, what is going to be the effect on job creation and our economic recovery? >> it cannot be too long and drawn out because you only have a month left to make a decision. the decision is whether the holiday ends at the end of february, or is extended through the end of the year, correct? >> correct. >> in which event, a holiday would expire anyway. to be frank, it will not have all that much effect on the economy. moving up 10 months the something that is going to happen at the beginning of next year anyway. but it is roughly $140 billion out of the be taken no pockets of working men and women. it would certainly reduce their spending some if they did not have that. that would reduce the demand for goods, and in turn, prompted the reduction of production of some goods and, in turn, job losses. it is just simple. if yo

dr. brannan, you worked on the hill for a long time. my concern has long been that the lame-duck session of the 2012 congress will look very much like the lame-duck session of the 2010 congress. big economic challenges, a fight over the bush tax cuts. and quite frankly, the 2012 session has a double whammy because you have this question of the sequestration kicking in. in other words, not really looking at targeting your spending in a careful way. i have looked at a lot of ways to break out of this cycle. for example, i opposed the bush tax cuts and i suggested after 2010, why don't we extend those bush tax cuts for one year so that congress will be forced on a bipartisan basis in 2011 to make some tough choices so that both sides would be under pressure to come together. obviously, we were not successful. i would have liked to have seen it. senator coats and i have a bipartisan tax reform idea. there have been other ideas on how to approach it. my one question to you is, what do you think can be done over the next few months to try to