that we will turn to henry aaron. he will say we have at all wrong. the president has it wrong and congress has it wrong and we're doing the wrong thing and he will tell us what she -- we should be doing instead. then we turn to my good friend william eldridge frenzel. for those under age 60 you might not be as familiar with william eldridge frenzel as those of us over age 60. he was in congress 20 years on the ways and means committee and ranking member of the budget committee for several terms. he knows as much about the budget as anyone i have encountered in washington. he is going to talk about what i think almost anybody in town--the politics. let me say a few things. i think it is helpful that the agreement has three distinct parts. it raises the debt ceiling which is the point of the whole thing. mostly that is all these agreements did was raise the debt ceiling. this time we did two other things. second we reduced the deficit which is the most complicated and we agreed to have a vote in the house and senate on balanced budget amendment to the

then we will turn to henry aaron.e will say we have been all wrong and the president has it all wrong and congress has it all wrong. he will tell us what we should be doing instead. finally, we will turn to my good friend, william frenzel. you probably will not be as familiar with bill. he was in congress for 20 years on the ways and means committee. he knows as much about the budget as anybody i have encountered in washington. he is a guest fellow here. he will talk about what i think he can talk about better than almost anybody in town and that is the politics of the budget deal. keep in mind. simple. it is helpful to think about the agreement that has three distinct parts. it raises the debt ceiling. that is all these agreements did. this time, we did two other things. we've reduced the deficit. the crucial part of the deal and the most complicated. we agree to have a vote in the house and the senate on an amendment to the constitution to balance the budget. that will take place in the fall. the second part of the

then, we will turn to henry aaron.he will say that we have the all wrong, the president has it wrong, congress has it wrong, and you'll tell us what we should do instead. finally, we will turn to my good friend, bill frenzel. for those under the age of 60 might not be as familiar with bill frenzel that he was in congress for 20 years, a ranking member of the budget committee for several terms, and knows as much about the budget as anyone i have encountered. is a guest scholar at brookings. he is quite to talk about the politics of the budget -- he is going to talk about the politics of the budget deal. let me say a few things about the agreement. it is helpful to think about it in three distinct parts. it raises the debt ceiling, which was the point of the whole thing. in the history of the country, all of these agreements raise the debt ceiling. this time, which two other things -- if we reduce the deficit, crucial, and by far the most complicated, and an third we agreed to have a vote on a balanced budget amendment t

henry aaron is going to tell us how. [laughter] >> financial catastrophe. >> i agree. i think it takes a crisis. american government has usually been pretty good in a crisis and pretty lousy at all other times. so perhaps that would do it. >> ron is channeling our colleague who is, by nature, extremely optimistic, and who said that her scenario, roughly speaking, is back the new ingredient here is the public revulsion about what happened the last few weeks or what did not have been the last few weeks, public concern about downgrading the crisis in financial markets about the weakening economy, and that could be the spark that causes a bigger agreement to take place. just to add to that, the most optimistic scenario, there is a grand bargain, and it involves not only $3.50 trillion or $4 trillion, like they were talking about a few months ago, but also the stimulus measures that henry mentioned and they are aiming for $3.50 trillion or $4 trillion on this grand bargain and have a lot of room to provide stimulus now and still get in the ceiling. i do not know how likely

then we will turn to henry aaron and. the says the president and congress has it wrong. finally, we are going to turn to my good friend bill frenzel. for those of you under age 60, you may not be as familiar with him. he was in progress for 20 years. it is the ranking member of the budget committee for several terms. bill was as much about the budget as anybody i had been captured in washington. bill is one to talk about the politics of the budget deal. let me just say a few things, keep in mind simple, about the agreement. the agreement has three distinct parts. first of all, it raises the debt ceiling, which with the point of the whole thing. this time we did two other things. psychic, we reduced the deficit, a crucial part of the deal. third, we agreed to have a vote in both the house and the senate on a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. that will take place in the fall. the first -- the second part of the deal -- the first part of the deal is raising the debt ceiling. that is done by about $39 million first. whatever it turns out to be it will get us thr

then, we will turn to henry aaron.hat we have the all wrong, the president has it wrong, congress has it wrong, and you'll tell us what we should do instead. finally, we will turn to my good friend, bill frenzel. for those under the age of 60 might not be as familiar with bill frenzel that he was in congress for 20 years, a ranking member of the budget committee for several terms, and knows as much about the budget as anyone i have encountered. is a guest scholar at brookings. he is going to talk about the politics of the budget deal. let me say a few things about the agreement. it is helpful to think about it in three distinct parts. it raises the debt ceiling, which was the point of the whole thing. in the history of the country, all of these agreements raise the debt ceiling. this time, which two other things -- if we reduce the deficit, crucial, and by far the most complicated, and an third we agreed to have a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, so that vote will take place in the fall. the sec