is it just a political squabble with the president sitting here and going to rio and talking about libya, or is it true, as mr. bernanke says, we -- we are on an unsustainable path? or is it true that mr. erskine bowles, the president's own director of the fiscal commission, says that we are facing the most predictable economic crisis in this country's history, and said it could happen within two years? are we making this up? the american people get it. they tell me what's going on in washington? you've got to get your house in order. that's what this past election was about. people understand we need some action and some leadership here, but we're not getting it. i just truly believe if we could get together, if we could get a bipartisan effort to look at this $61 billion, we could disagree on how to reduce that spending. maybe republicans have this idea and democrats have that. let's work all that out, but let's reach an agreement that actually reduces spending by enough to make a difference, that the world would say wow, the congress is beginning to take some steps. that was a nice, good, strong first step