one of the narratives of this is indeed the paul kennedy rise and fall of a great power.e united states is not immune to this in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary. and this is a narrative we're hearing quite a lot now in the russian context. you have to ask yourself why. >> was mentioned they were about to be into election in 2012. and while while ken was talking very eloquently about this enormous leadership transition in asia, about 70% of the chinese party and then all the leadership transitions there's not going to be much of a leadership transition in russia. we've got very limited options for who's going to move out of this even if it's the testing of the various tests we've still got a same group of people for the last 10 years certainly been at the uppermost russian politics. so they got to make this exciting and it's a great reflection away from your own problems at home if you can burden basically people for economic issues, and the russian economic engine is also slowing down. that they won't be able to withstand a double-dip recession because they s

in 1987, paul kennedy wrote a very smart book about america declined and america being overstretched. it s and history. what happened? it was not that american changed, it was that the soviet union unexpectedly collapsed. it was not that the united thought it would be, it was that the soviet union to collapse. is the united states is in terminal decline or that china seriously shake its system? i think that the child the challenge is probably a greater problem and i think that the chinese do, too. >> do you want to respond to that? >> not really. >> let's talk about one of the more established powers, the russians and how they are function. bob left us in the ruins of the u.s.s.r. there is the paul kennedy rise and fall of the great powers and the united states is not immune to this, despite all the evidence to the contrary. this is a narrative we are hearing a lot in the russian context. it is not just the russians, it is everybody else we have been talking about. useful narrative. it shows that it can happen to anyone. it is not just saying that we are parasites on the face of the g

in 1987, paul kennedy broke a smart book about american decline and make america being overstretch.t was well supported by facts and history. change but the soviet union unexpectedly collapsed. if you had to ask me what is more likely, that the united decline that will be with us decade after decade or that china will run up against some challenge which may seriously shape it's a system, i think the china challenge is probably the greater problem. do, too. >> do you want to respond, ken? >> not really [laughter] . >> let's talk about russians and how they view this political dysfunction. >> that is a good segue from where we were just last. the united states is not immune despite all the evidence. we are hearing this argument a lot in this russian context. it is not just the russians, is about here. useful phrase for the russians because it shows that it can happen to anyone. some have said that the collapse of the soviet union was the worst thing happened in the 20th century. chinese would really bite into this but for the russians, they are send the narrative and theare 20 years o

in 1987 paul kennedy wrote a very smart book about american decline and america being overstretched andt was well supported by facts and history, and what happened? the soviet union suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed. not that the united states proved to be so wonderful, it was that the other guy collapsed. if you had to ask what was more likely, that the united states will stay in terminal decline or that china will run up against some challenge which may seriously shake its system, i think the china challenge is probably a greater problem and i think the chinese probably due to. -- do too. theet's talk about one of other established powers, russia. there is political dysfunction there. >> that is a great segue from the ruins of the soviet empire and the ussr. the united states is not immune to this despite all evidence to the contrary. russians, this is a very useful narrative, because it shows that it can happen to anyone. the russians have not only said the we are parasites on the global economy, but that the greatest tragedy of the 20th- century was the collapse of the soviet unio

paul ryan or eric cantor? >> well, there's a difference between talking about tax increases and revenue increases. increasing tack rates, you know, i remember the speech that john f. kennedyen he was president, saying that actually reducing tax rates was going to produce economic growth and produce extra revenue. so i think there's a lot of confusion, because sometimes people are asked about revenue increases, sometimes they're asked about tax rate increases, and the best way that you can increase revenue right now is to get the economy healthy again. that will bring in a lot more revenue for the federal government than any sort of tax increase could ever bring in. >> that's like saying the best way to get things we had is to bring in water. the question is, how do you bring in the water? >> good question. >> how do you do that without reforming the tax the way that we have taxing in this country, dealing with the tax breaks that were given by former president bush. >> there were interesting numbers that came out this summer. it you took all the of the money, the taxable income of every american that makes more than $100,000 a year, their total income would be insufficien