said quite rightly that "you do not make the poor rich by making the rich poor." >> reporter: richard epstein, thank you very much. >> it's been a great pleasure to be here. >> ifill: now to capitol hill, there have been few clear signs of progress in the so-called super committee's efforts to cut more than a trillion dollars from the budget. and the clock is ticking. "newshour" congressional correspondent kwame holman has our report. >> reporter: with a thanksgiving deadline drawing ever closer, the deficit supercommittee held its first public session in a month. but republican congressman jeb hensarling of texas, a committee co-chair, made clear just how tough the job is. >> the challenge before us remains that we must find quality health care solutions, quality retirement security solutions for our nation at a cost that does not compromise our national security, does not compromise job growth in our economy and does not mortgage our children's future. everything else we do, including >> reporter: the day's most significant development may have come from behind closed doors. it was widely r

correspondent paul solman responds to the avalanche of viewer reaction to his interview with professorlu richard epstein, who defended the concept of economic inequality.so that's on our making sense paged all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at the super committee's deficitre negotiations. i'm judy woodruff.om >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night.we ' y prmaorjj funding for t pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. m >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them.l >> and we depend on them. f bnsf railway. intel. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technolog

. >> alisyn: not -- >> i linked to the video last week, hang on every word by the genius richard epsteined people to give them money, and, you are taking a risk, giving some guy in his garage money. you want the higher rate of return and you have a lower rate of return if the government is going to take more, so in order to attract investors, toed ideas like this, it reduces the risk if you are not paying as much in taxes and you will have more products, like the iphone and so on and so forth. and, another point he makes, a little bit later in the video, is what i think people need to start focusing on, it isn't rich versus poor, as was pointed out a million times, these are not static categories, we're all poor at some point in our lives, students and graduate students and at some point you have your high earning years and he attacked -- richard epstein attacks the estate tax and, parents are investing in their children and human capital and i trust them more than government and that this is division, is the government making decisions by picking your pocket or, are individuals making t