mr. lew. my objections arise primarily and first from his performance as director of the office of management and budget. it is in many ways a key position in our government. that is the office through which the president controls all the departments and agencies of our government, which he is required to supervise. normally, and necessarily, the o.m.b. director is a single office that drives efficiency and demands accountable on behalf of the president and the american people throughout our great bureaucracy. in that aspect of his job, i've seen little leadership, and at this time of surging debt i would rate that performance as an f. i have never seen a consistent, determined, effort from the director of office of office of management and budget to make more productive this government of ours. indeed, his primary it effort consistently seems to have been to defend any program under attack, scrutiny, or question, rather than examining vigorously to save every single dollar that can be saved

we will ask mr. lew. mr. ew promised the president if confirmed he will work to make at least one letter legible in order to not face america's currency and we will hold them to that promise. in addition to the signature of america's secretary-treasurer the front of every u.s. dollar bill has the seal of the united states treasury. look closely. you will see the symbols of balancing skills to represent justice. there is a chevron and 13 stars which represent the 13 original colonies and underneath the emblem is a key which notes treasuries of official authority. if confirmed, we will be entrusting mr. lew with the authority to oversee america's financial system and economic policy. he will play a critical role in the upcoming debates on spending priorities. we will be relying on him to ensure government and finances are sound. we will be asking him to work with us to return stability and confidencconfidenc e to our economy. we will be asking him to work with us to ensure the united states remains a great world

mr. lew for the crucial role as the administration's top advisor on economic policy. yesterday's overwhelming support for mr. lew came after one of the most thorough reviews of any candidate for the position. a process that includes hours of interviews with mr. lew, the examination of six years of tax records, and more than 700 questions for the record. in comparison, the committee asked secretary geithner 289 questions, secretary paulson 81 and secretary snow 75 questions. mr. lew has met personally with more than 40 senators since being nominated for treasury secretary last month, answering questions and addressing any concerns. throughout the confirmation process, mr. lew has been open and transparent. and as i hope a vote here in the senate will soon show, he has gained the trust and the confidence of many in this chamber. mr. lew has a long and distinguished career focused on public service with experience in both academia and on wall street. most recently he is the white house chief of

i'm sure that mr. lew appreciates it. thank you. ok, mr. lew. our usual practice is that statements will be submitted for the record. to summarize -- if you want to speak longer than five minutes, take your time. this is an important decision. >> thank you, mr. chairman and members of the committee should it is a privilege to be considered by this committee as the nominee to be treasury of the sect -- secretary of the treasury. thank you for the kind introductions. it has been my great fortune to work with them over many years. i'm honored that they were here this morning. i'm thankful to my family and my wife and my daughter who are here today. my son and my grandchildren. my public life divides -- demands much from the family. i appreciate the sacrifice and the missed family time. while my parents are only with me in spirit, i sit here because they instilled in me lasting values and the commitment to serve our country. .'m grateful to president obama it has been honored to serve and his cabinet and as his chief of staff. i'm humbled by his fai

and we need to work with mr. lew and the administrative to craft more jobs and spark economic growth. if confirmed we will be entrusting mr. lew with the power of overseeing economic policy a great responsibility, one which i believe mr. lew will live up to. i think he has what it takes mr. president. the treasury secretary obviously is the top economic advisor to the president. he works for the president he works for the country. so the second role of the treasury secretary is to speak to the nation about our nation's finances. it's really a dual role. he is both working for the president, but he is also working for all of us the people of the united states of america. it's a very prestigious very important position, because when he speaks, he is speaking for america on financial matters and also on economic matters. it's a separate role that all treasury secretaries the good ones perform and i think jack lew is going to be a very, very good one of the good ones. i ask my colleagues to confirm mr. lew today as the n

mr. lew will have his work cut out for him. the comment today is on the road to recovery but it is a road with many twists and turns. last week he had a report on the deficit as a percentage of gdp for 2012 to 2015 will be cut in half and the debt to gdp ratio will be stable for the next five years. the budget control act of 2011 and the end of the year fiscal clever arrangement with bipartisan have made a difference nearly $2.4 trillion of deficit reduction has been locked in for the next ten years. while progress has been made, the job is certainly not over. there are many tough decisions ahead of us. the first challenges the sequester, across-the-board cuts into the programs starting in just over two weeks and then we quickly face the threat of a government shutdown. the sequester will cut the critical programs including medicare, development and early education. the work together republicans and democrats the house and senate with the administration to prevent indiscriminate cuts and last

mr. lew's eggerness and skill in obtaining bonuses, severance payments, raise questions about whether he appreciates who pays the bill. in fact, when asked basic questions like what interest did you receive -- did you pay on your million dollar mortgage, mr. lew could not remember. of course that answer doesn't pass a lab test. when asked about communications with citigroup regarding

just for context, chris, before we go to what mr. lew did and how he had money in the kaymans, here is a calook at the campaign. >> and this is a man who says that president barack obama is out of touch. out of touch with the needs of the american people. this coming from a man until recently had a swiss bank account and millions of dollars invested in the grand cayman islands. >> i'd really like to see mitt romney release more than one year of tax records because there's been disturbing reports that he's got a bermuda corporation, a secretive bermuda corporation nobody knows anything about. investments in the caymans, a swiss bank account. >> megyn: and it goes on from there, but it was suspicious when mitt romney did it and now, the administration doesn't seem to feel the same about it. >> well, it was not just to the suspicious to the obama campaign, it was morally wrong. it was legal they said, but it sets the bad things about mitt romney's character and david axlerod even said the president could have done that with his wealth, but

mr. lew's eagerness and skill in obtaining bonuses, severance payments, and perks raise questions whether he appreciates who pays the bill. in fact when asked basic questions like, what interest did you receive, or did you pay on your $1.4 million mortgage? mr. lew could not remember. and of course, that answer doesn't pass the laugh test. when asked about communications with citigroup regarding student loan kickbacks he responded that he couldn't remember any. then he and the administration made it clear that they had no intention of providing documents that might refresh his recollection and shed light on whether he was involved in those kickbacks. clearly these questions don't matter to them because they think they have the votes but transparency and sunlight are essential for congress and for the american people. if mr. lew will not answer our questions now, why should we on this committee expect him to answer any questions if he is confirmed? that is unacceptable and for these reasons i wi

i assume he weighed all those factors into the analysis of deciding to nominate mr. lew reporter: the white house declined our request for an interview with lew, and by all indications the president will get his wish and he will sail through confirmation. >> i've practiced law, i've worked at a university, i've worked at a financial institution. i think if i hadn't had a set of experiences like that, i wouldn't be sitting here today speaking with confidence that i could undertake the responsibilities of secretary of the treasury. >> it should be noted that not only did the treasury department fully recover the $45 billion it invested in citi, it made an additional return of more than $13 billion. >>> next up, the role that almost wasn't. how sally field fought for the role of mary todd lincoln and earned a shot at oscar number three. when she's sad, she writes about goblins. [ balloon pops, goblin growling ] she wrote a lot about goblins after getting burned in the market. but she found someone to talk to and gained the confidence to start investing again. ♪ and that's w

chairman. >> thank you. >> mr. lew, welcome. i want to come back to an area where i think there is room for what republicans and democrats to talk about -- tax reform. i think you are familiar with these documents. contrast that we talked about this. i think you are familiar with these documents. contrast that with the paper the white house put out which is 25 pages. it is a corporate tax reform proposal. give ministration is going to have to do a better job of leading on the issue of tax reform if we are going to get something done on this issue. this goes along with the myriad issues we deal with a in the tax code. the president talked about tax reform last night but as i give us any details. he says he supports lowering rates for businesses. does the president when he says that agree the rates need to be lowered across the board for all taxpayers? a lot of small businesses file on individual tax forms and pay individual tax rates. should tax reform include a lowering of rates on individual taxpayers as well as the corporate r

if mr. lew will not answer our questions now, why should we on this committee expect him to answer any questions if he's confirmed? that's unacceptable and for these reasons i and for these reasonsly vote no on the nomination. . fed chair ben bernanke says the federal reserve's low interest rate policy is providing key support to the economy. he delivered the fed's semiannual report to a senate committee today. tomorrow morning he will testify before the house financial services committee. c-span 3 will have live coverage and that will get under way at 10:00 a.m. eastern. here is part of his testimony earlier today before the senate banking committee where he urged the senate to take action to avoid a sequester. >> before we proceed with today's hearing, after we have a quorum, the committee will briefly meet in executive session to adopt the committee rules of procedure. our budget resolution for the 113th congress and new committee and jurisdiction. neither i nor ranking member has any amendme

"wall street journal" editorial editor, james freeman has been looking into mr. lew'sat citibank. let's put this into context. citibank was particularly big player in the financial crisis. >> that is right. one of the banks of the center of the mortgage melt down, in 2007, citi was one of the first to have difficulties when they been managing these off balance sheet vehicles to invest in mortgages. those started to go south. they ended up at the end of that year having to take them in-house again and stand behind them which put a lot of financial pressure on the firm. i think this is going to be a test, nomination whether they are still outraged about the bailout. >> paul: they had a $45 billion taxpayer injection and guarantee of $300 billion in bad loans. there is no question in mind, citibank would have failed without federal intervention? >> i think it would. the question in my mind is whether they should have let it fail. >>> sheila bair thought so but she was opposed by other people in the administration. let's get to jack lew? >> maybe the most interesting job i

the question, i think, mr. lew tough time responding to is, what did you understand about this when you went to work there? were you abelief yows to -- ooblivious to the risks? in which case we wonder if you can spot risks in the rest of the financial system, or were you aware of them and just didn't say anything? david: well, did he do anything to clean up the mess? >> it's hard to find any evidence he did anything at all. when you talk to the white house people who worked with mr. lew, it's basically a long list of denials of things he had responsibility for. it's hard to figure out what he actually did. david: well, as treasury secretary, god help us, he may be called upon at some point to initiate other bailouts. who knows what crisis we may or may not get into over the next four years. if he does so, could he be charged by people who don't agree with that with conflict of interest? >> i think that is what you worry about. we come through this period where big banks were bailed out. there's kind of a simmering

basically attacking the cayman islands and tax havens and now for the president and m baucus to give mr. lewass, i suppose you could say now it's great news for the caymans off the hook politically. i think it ought to bother people that the standard has mr. obama said, gets pushed aside. >> in the phoniness of the kaymans issue and the phony outrage. what else have we learned about the-- what jack lew knows or thinks about taxes, finance, other things? >> well, a yes man, he believes in ethe president's policy eliminating deductions and raise taxes keep government spending. he doesn't support a skwes star, glass-steagall, this is the president's agenda. >> paul: why would we expect anything different? don't we expect that of the nominee. >> we expect that of this president which is to say usually treasury secretaries represent the american economy. this treasury secretary is going to represent the public sector, not the entire private economy and when he goes up there on capitol hill as mary suggests, he's going to be defending barack obama's public sector agenda. if that's what his experti

as well as session's assertion that testimony before congress in the past mr. leween less than forthright and perhaps perjured himself on such issues such as the budget. many, many vacancies. there is no director of the small business administration. jon: environmental protection agency and alcohol tobacco and firearms, vacant secretaries at interior, commerce, and labor. the obama administration is heading into busy second term and the whole team is not on the bench yet. jon: interesting developments. that will be an interesting week. carl cameron. jenna: breaking news out of the vatican today. an historic day in that. we're getting reaction in the pope's surprising decision to resign. this is the first time it happened in hundreds of years. we'll [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup c

if taxpayers are going to prop up failed banks they have a right to know what a key executive like mr. lewthis disingenuous on hatch's part? he voted for tarp. now he's coming back and owe poes lew for doing exactly what the senate basically instructed these things to do. >> i want oh to give him the benefit of the doubt that they want the public to know the information about people's role with taxpayers' money and considering that a number of people are still feeling pressure in the economy and that the banks and the housing market has not just gone their way, he wants them to give the benefit of the doubt to share the information with the public. but then i think back this is just politics again and showmanship. this is a person who has already gone through vetting of this kind three times. you know, so what's different? >> michael: well, that makes perfect sense. before i let you each go, joe what is your headline on the state of the union. tomorrow's headline, what do you think it will be about? >> hum, i honestly think it will be about gun violence. i think that will be the top line,

citigroup received a taxpayer funded bailout and gave mr. lew a piece of it on his way out the door. >> senate majority leader harry reid is hopeful there will be an agreement on the entire senate on the lew nomination tomorrow. >> bill: negotiators for the united states and other major world powers today offered iran a deal on its nuclear program. officials from six nations said they would ease some economic restrictions on iran if iran agrees to stop enriching uranium at an underground nuclear plant. of course, iran has repeatedly refused to do just that. and few people seem to believe this new round of talks is going to lead to any major break through. nevertheless, the new secretary of defense john kerry said that he hopes iran will agree to a diplomatic solution. >> there is a diplomatic path. there is is a clear way through this. and i want these talks to have their chance to work through before i comment further. >> hope as a strategy. israel has threatened it will use all means necessary to stop iran from building a bomb. iran claims its

i want to assure that a senator 's interest for mr. lewidge of issues has made clear that i intend to invite him before the kennedy soon after he is confirmed. but finance committee has primary jurisdiction over his finan nomination. second, i do not think we should start down the path of trying to mend the committee rules depending on our individual preferences for a particular hearing. that is why we consult with the ranking member and other members of hearings. eric, i'm concerned that amending our rules in this way -- third, i'm concerned that mending our rules in this way -- no senate committee has such a rule. finally -- >> i'm sorry. >> the proposed rules change is unworkable. i urge my colleagues to uphold this amendment. >> mr. chairman, if i could respond briefly and maybe suggest a middle ground. first, i think a formal rule change is appropriate because of dodd frank and the enormous significance of that treasury secretary to matters under the direct jurisdiction of this committee. that is a permanent change. be that as it may,

it was a little uncomfortable for mr. lew regarding that yesterday.rian: he was uncomfortable all day. he had no answers to any questions. controversial statements in 2011 about not raising the debt and of course it's gone through the roof. then this problem with the cayman islands account which of course he's not responsible for. have you ever seen more people not responsible for things that they are responsible for, except for washington? especially this guy. can you imagine having $56,000 in a cayman islands account? i don't really do that. really? it actually got worse because he was chief of staff during the time in which benghazi went down on 9/11/2011. >>gretchen: the big question is what did the president know and when and how did he react and what was his leadership at that time. here's the exchange on benghazi. >> who was actually briefing the president? were you? >> i was not. i was in the room when the president was briefed but i was not briefing the president. >> okay. because john brennan testified yesterday that it wasn't him. secretary

and mr. lew'sudget and egregious disregard for the truth for fiscal reform and in so doing placed this nation and its citizens in financial danger. these actions alone are disqualifies and sessions threatened this just last night, listen up. >> with cabinet people we try not to do that almost done ever in the senate, but this is a big deal. >> reporter: lew was the chief operating officer of citigroup from 2006-2008. citigroup was the largest recipient of any banking institution of bailout money, almost half a trillion dollars, that no doubt will come under tremendous scrutiny as jack lew's confirmation hearing for treasury secretary gets underway here. >> all right. doug, thanks for that. new revelations to track down that ex-lapd officer going on a killing rampage, gunned down at least three people allegedly for retaliation for being fired from the lapd back in 2009. well, now we're learning that dorner was seen purchasing scuba equipment just two days before the murders and that he may also be c

understand it, the idea of the sequestration and originated with the president and his budget director, mr. lew. that is how they came up with this concept. republicans should simply let the thing become a fact. it is the only opportunity we have to make the present make any cuts at all. he seems to be so opposed to spending cuts and is only interested in finding tax and revenue. in my personal opinion, what we need to do is step back and take a look at our military and our commitments. we have bases in europe that have no reason to be there, certainly not in the numbers we are. host: we will leave it there. thanks for your call. ray locker? guest: we have a lot of military commitments all over the world. do we need to maintain a base in germany, for example? we could lessen our footprint there. there is a base on the islands in the atlantic that are controlled by portugal. we could dial that all presence there. if things get bad enough and there is an emergency and other nations realize it is a problem, we would have access to those basis. host: the caller talked about sequestration actually b

. >> i believe, mr. lewn error. >> reporter: sessions was pressing lew about a claim he made on cnn's "state of the union," that the president's election year 2012 budget would not add to the debt or deficit. >> our budget will get us over the next several years to the point where we can look at the american people in the eye and say, measure not add to the debt anymore. >> does this budget do it? >> i think we get to the point where -- >> does it do it? >> it gets us to the point where we stop adding to the problem of new spending. >> that goes up every year and the deficit -- the debt has increased. >> it was breathtakingly false. >> reporter: in a telephone interview with cnn, session, minced no words about his opposition to lew for treasury secretary. >> he's misrepresented fundamentally what he -- the budget that he has produced, and doesn't have any of a normal financial so fif cation that you would look for in a secretary of treasury. >> reporter: an administration official defended lew's claim that t

i know bachus says that mr. lew paid his taxes that he was supposed to pay. this was fully within the law to do it. to have tax shelters in the caymans. i thought you didn't like those as a rule. >> i don't like them. generally speaking. is this place a house of thieves, this -- whatever the heck it is down in -- >> it is. >> it still is. >> it's not a good thing. >> it's not a good thing. >> it's not a good thing. >> i can't imagine that jack lew would -- >> becky has the story that she should probably -- >> it is going to be something that makes for a very interesting story in washington this morning. >>> the senate banking committee's going to be grilling president obama's treasury secretary nominee, jack lew, today. among the issues expected to be raised are a bonus he received from citigroup and, as joe was talking about, cayman island investments. lew is expected to eventually win confirmation. we're going to be speaking to veteran senate finance committee member charles grassley coming up at 8:00 eastern time. yes, the situation with cayman island acco

my question is about citigroup to you mr. lew there, and not to current citigroup operations. frankly, i do not believe that i have a good understanding -- >> we'll take a break here but of course the q&a getting quite interesting regarding jack lew's cayman islands investment and now his experience at citi. we'll get you headlines as they happen. lot more reaction to the q&a when "squawk on the street" comes back. transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. how do you keep an older car running like new? you ask a ford customer. when they tell you that you need your oil changed you got to b

confirmed was mr. lew. president obama's former chief of staff will succeed tim geithner. the vote was 19-5. here's a look at our schedule starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, the day from the senate floor on chuck hagel's nomination. remarks from attorney general holder in reducing gun violence and gun control laws. and the senate finance committee holds a hearing on the automatic budget cuts. coming up next, a house homeland security subcommittee hearing on maritime border security. this is an hour and 45 minutes. >> good morning everyone and the committee on homeland security, our subcommittee on borders and maritime security will come to order. the subcommittee is meeting today to examine our nation's border security. we have an all-star panel of witnesses here this morning. michael fisher who is the chief of the united states border patrol, kevin mcaleenan, acting assist ant commissioner in the office of field operations at customs and border protection and admiral william lee, deputy for operations, policy and capabilities at the united states coast guard. rebecc

this is what mr. lew said, our new treasury secretary. "make no mistake, the sequestration is not meant to be policy. rather, it is meant to be an unpalatable option that all parties want to avoid." that was their view of sequestration. and according to bob woodward and comments since, this idea came out of the white house, and the white house thought that if you created a penalty clause for supercommittee fail our called sequestration where you would have to take $600 billion of the $1.2 trillion out of the defense department, that would make the supercommittee more likely to achieve a result, and if you took $600 billion out of non-defense that would put pressure to get the supercommittee to get the right result. well, we're going to spend $45 trillion over the next decade. the question for the country is, can we save $1.2 trillion without destroying the defense department and raising taxes? yes, we could if we tried. so put me in the camp that this is aheavable. it is not something that is unachievable. but what senator mccain said is

the sequester even though he's denied it since, and he -- he got that, he and his budget director, mr. lew, he was just promoted to secretary of treasury. so he agreed to that, and closing loopholes, all that is is a tax increase, of course. so if we agree at some point to close loopholes, it ought to be part of tax reform and it ought to be part of reducing the deficit, not funding new spending. because you see we have agreed to this new baseline and when the president says don't do the sequester, the sequester amounts to $1.2 trillion -- $1.1 trillion out of the $2.1 trillion in reduced spending, he's talking about increasing spending over the amount he just agreed to 19 months ago. he is talking about increasing spending at a time this nation has never faced a more serious systemic financial debt crisis. and he wants to -- his excuse is well, we'll close loopholes, but you see, reducing the deficit increase over ten years from $9 trillion in new debt to $7 trillion in new debt is not enough. the budget commission, experts, everybody knows. if you asked everybody in this senate, liberals

eight senate republicans signed a letter saying lew failed to warn congress about a medicare funding problem when he was mr. obama's budget director. alabama senator jeff sessions leading the fight against lew says he also lied when he said the 2012 budget would not add to the nation's debt. the administration defends lew's claim that the president's budget would not add to the debt. saying it's accurate if you don't count the interest on the debt. republicans didn't buy that argument then and they're not buying it now. democratic senator robert menendez of new jersey is firing back at claims that he engaged in parties with prostitutes during trips to the dominican republic. just before election day this past november, a conservative online publication cited three unidentified sources who claimed menendez flew on private planes to the caribbean and had sex parties with prostitutes during the trips. menendez tells c-n-n those claims are all false. buddy can find them nobody ever met them nobody ever talked to him. all of those accusations are absolutely false. also menendez is also under fire for waiting so

brennan, and we'll do mr. lew, who will be the secretary of treasury.we'll line up this week as to what we're going do when we get back after the work period we're going to have at home for five days. so i look forward to a productive night. i hope we can complete these votes, because there's people who've worked very, very hard on this, not the least of which has been the presiding officer, the chairman of the judiciary committee, who has worked on this matter for a number of years. so i would hope that we could complete this very, very quickly. will the chair read the business of the day. the presiding officer: under the previous order shall the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of s. 47, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 1, s. 47, a bill to reauthorize the violence against women act of 1994. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 5:30 p.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. the presiding officer: the senator from v

mr. session would have preferred to be nominating you. however an hour ago lewas confirmed by the full senate. that wasn't the only mention you got. business insider naming you one of the best dressed in the business of business news journalism. they think your french cuffed shirts and pin stripe suits are sharp. they love your glasses and pocket square and american flag lapel pin that you wear as well. several other of our colleagues also making the list, courtney regan, andrew ross sorkin, sue herrera. >> i'm in good company. i appreciate it. bertha coombs thanks for helping out. our panel will be back and we have a comment on a bunch of things. up next one of the most talked about political decision out there. this is a move not to invite chris christie to the big cpac conference. we'll talk to the man who runs cpac and ask him why because i think that's huge mistake. that's up next. i'm with christie on this one. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive? a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly w

mr. schumer. >> aye. >> miss stabenow? >> senate finance committee voted 18-5 to send jack lew's nomination to the full senate for a final votecans joined all 14 democrats in favor. lew was the president. chief of staff for a year. he was nominated in january to succeed timny geithner? we are waiting for president obama to talk about the forced spending cuts that that would take effect on friday. we'll bring it to you live. we're watching an event out of virginia. we'll bring it to you as soon as he starts to speak. first of all, i want to bring our political panel back to talk about what this means, politically, but also what does it mean for all of us, the real deal in all of this. john king in washington, dana bash on the hill, jessica yellin at the white house. so, john, first of all, do we think, and we've seen a lot of really i guess stage craft, if you will, the trips, this plant that he's visiting now, to make his case to the public, how effective is that at this point? because it really is about public opinion now. it doesn't shape what happens on friday. >> well, he's trying to personalize it, suzanne. hoping by kee

mr. tea party being the one most out front raising the issue. >> also important to note, steve, jack lew is up for treasury secretary, and he is having to answer questions about caymen islands off shore investments and really outrageous pay packages. sort of _#uncomfortable for the administration. >> none of these are going through easily, huh? >> no. >> it's amazing. on that point you were just making about rand paul, i think one thing that might tie into that is the sequester because it's not just the policy on drones, but just sort of the attitudes towards military, towards the pentagon, and towards military spending. there is sort of common cause between traditionally it's been the left that let's cut the pentagon, we spend too much overseas. there is a big constituency on the right that believes we're spending too much. you have the old sort of -- you have like the mccain types who, you know, the defense contractors say we can't have this, let's not have this, but you have the rand paul types and tea party types who say, no, go ahead. let's take the sequester or let's take the equiv