joining us is martin feldstein, harvard university. ally right off the bat here, can we get your thoughts on the european situation? was the euro project, mr. feldstein, a mistake. >> it was a mistake the way it was constructed at the beginning. but they're stuck with it now. the countries differ a lot. greece is different than talking about italy and spain is different from either of them. so there is no single fix for all of them. frankly, i think greece is beyond repair. unless they will transfer money year after year indefinitely, the best situation is to leave the eurozone, devalue a new currency and be able therefore to grow again. italy on the other hand is in much better shape. italy doesn't need to leave the eurozone. italy has put in place policies both on pension reform and tax reform which will give it a palled budget gradually reducing the debt to gdp ratio. so italy should continue to have relatively good access to the the bond markets. >> if you're saying it was a mistake to start with, the euro zone project, and if you'r

madam president, martin feldstein, a distinguished conservative economist -- nobody ever accused martin feldstein of being a liberal -- said this: "cutting tax expenditures is really the best way to reduce government spending. eliminating tax expenditures does not increase marginal tax rates or reduce the reward for saving, investment, or risk-taking. it would also increase overall economic efficiency by removing incentives that distort private spending decisions. and eliminating or consolidating the large number of overlapping tax-based subsidies would also greatly simplify tax filing. in short, cutting tax expenditures is not at all like other ways of raising revenue." madam president, in this case, i think martin feldstein has got it about right. one way we could raise additional revenue is to reform the current tax system, making our system more competitive and at the same time raising additional revenue that could be used to help reduce the deficit, along with reform of entitlement programs, along with additional spending restraint. madam president, these tax expenditures go overwh