. >> over the last three years the administration proposed to appeal the lifo accounting method. and i understand that by your calculations that would result o in about $78 billion worth of revenue. obviously that accounting method has been used for a long time o and has been considered a valid accounting method for certain businesses, including one that's near and dear to the heart of 's all kentuckians, the bourbon distilling industry.urbon and the justification for it, is that bourbon has to be aged for quite a long period of time.ve i have a fortune 1,000 company y based in my district, brown foreman distilleries which woul, be adversely impacted to the fo tune of several hundred millionu dollars by this change. impa meanwhile, it does about $3.4 mn billion worth of business, abouo half of that is exported.s so it is contributing to our helping our trade balance. my question to you is while calculating the impact the change in lifo accounting methods, in terms of the revenue side, has omb calculated the other implications economically of that change, including the possible de

there was a lot of game that can go on through that lifo system. the treasury secretary is the point person on specifics around individual tax policies. so i'll have to defer to geithner on the calculation and how cost to benefits are weighed. >> i appreciate that. i have raised that with secretary geithner as well. quick question. when i'm home this weekend and anymore costco, mr. simpson says people don't care about it. if i'm walking through costco and kroger or someplace and a citizen says, why should i care whether this is a -- the deficit, debt, percentages of gdp as opposed to nominal numbers, whether it's the $11 trillion here in this calculation or in the republican budget that was passed last year, the $6 trillion, why does that matter to the average citizen? >> i think it matters because we need to make sure the sandwich citizen understands that we're doing what we need to do right now to bring down the unemployment rate and make sure that people are employed and there are plenty of jobs that we're making the investments to make this a m

i have to mention the proposal of the administration again to do away with the lifo accounting method which would have very dramatic effects on the bourbon distilling industry in my state and something that has become a growing expert. yesterday i asked mr. zince whether or not in constructing the proposal to end lifo that there is a consideration of the broader economic impact of ending that. and, of course, i'm particularly interested on the distilling industry than others. has there been an analysis of broader economic impact? >> we have looked very carefully as we always do on the impact of those proposals on the industries affected. in our just a minute the impact is modest and manageable, but, of course, no one likes to see their taxes go up. and our basic problem, of course, is when you have to govern with limited resources is who are we going to ask to pay for those special taxes? they do go to a broad range of industries. i understand they have a long tradition. i understand the merits of them but the fundamental problem is we face unsustainable deficits and we have to find a

if you move to ifrs lifo would not be allowed. it would eliminate the current ability of some firms to use last-in, first-out accounting. i think there is clearly different goals for the accounting rules and as the tax writing committee you have different goals including revenue that are your objectives. >> i agree with most of what was said before me. i think really there's -- the accounting rules are there for something completely different than what our tax rules are there for. it's to get revenue, it should be done in a manner that promotes growth, investment, jobs. those are two completely different worlds. so i would encourage us to keep them separate. >> okay. and i have just a few second left so could the businesses just quickly talk about -- we have talked about reforms and the challenges to reforms. could you just briefly talk about if we do nothing the cost of inaction to your business if we keep the status quo? >> personally i don't think that's a good option. i think status quo is where we want to be. >> i think we're