jennifer the paul saffo writer for the fiscal times. well the u.s. has iran with laura thanks but do sanctions really work or is this the latest between washington and her. thanks. to the police corruption. test nobody seems to know. that i never have a straight face but for every argument that they're being overly dramatic. i'm laurie mr. white. crime. only ron is facing fresh thank sions today the u.s. u.k. and canada have announced new financial and energy sanctions against the country as a whole and it's time to stop iran from developing a suspected nuclear weapons program this comes after a controversial report came out from the un's watchdog which supposedly shows evidence that iran is pursuing nuclear ambitions meanwhile syria now the united as the next country to face things sions this is the u.s. puts pressure on syria to hold military operations against civilians and advocates human rights in the country the un human rights committee today passed a resolution condemning syria's crackdown on protesters no mention in the resolution of sanctio

played a blame game one of the consequences of all of this kind of words of paul staff writer for the fiscal times is here to talk more about it welcome jennifer is this a case of politics before country. you know i would say so i mean but at the end of the same time you know the super committee was set up and it almost seemed doomed from the start when they first started out they had the super power they were bought maybe they can move past these ideological differences taxes and entitlements but that just wasn't the case and a lot of people were meant to do sort of a missed opportunity again we saw this missed opportunity in the debt ceiling debate where they couldn't forge a grand bargain so. i think both parties are to blame that they do put the politics ahead of the country here. and there and you know why is it so hard to compromise and could it be that they're it's to their political benefit not to compromise while we can have the election coming up and twenty twelve and a lot of people are saying that at the end of the day no deal is better than a bad deal filled with some unpopular mandat

and senate but the clock is ticking and either of these numbers or are being extremely tight lipped things are not moving forward as quickly as expected and this is a topic fiscal times staff writer jennifer de paul has been covering been covering the super committee since its inception know what's going on here why are things taking so long to get done well you know part of the reason is right now there have been these secret behind door meetings and right after the past two weeks democrats republicans and separately each other on proposals one isn't good enough where one isn't going out so they're sort of in limbo right here. penciling where the co-chairs were saying that republicans have gone as far as they can i read news this morning the other co-chair patty murray was saying that they're just not going to accept any perp. those are those that have tax cuts for the the wealthiest people in america so there is this it's come down soon in taxes which have been stumbling blocks before and that's why i wanted to say you know i don't want to oversimplify what's going on here but. this isn't rocket science to some extent i mean most people in america think that these

i think that's why you know congress is going up to the eleventh hour and that was tough for the fiscal times jennifer depart and that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our usa and check out our you tube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america you should also follow me on twitter at christine for is out i'll see you right back here and a half hour. do you like are you sure which in the world go online and target.

of bracing for this failure so there are people wondering why can't we all just get along for the fiscal time saying we're just all thanks. well it's time to look at what's ahead on the capital account with more and lesser lauren what do you got cooking for us today christina i have one question for you and if you get the answer then maybe you should come because i'm. if you can think of what would be the similarity between say a pro athlete who's been signed to a new team and an executive at fannie mae which is the government sponsored enterprise which now the u.s. government controls the treasury controls that taxpayers bailed it out who i know i know i know what they've both make a lot of money you're very close you're on to something but it is more than that but you're going to have to wait and watch the show to find out what exactly we're talking i know you always tease me laura and i are going to get into your thoughts or so christine all right i guess i will anything else briefly that will entice our viewers to stick around yeah you know we've been talking a lot about europe over the l

though that if we do nothing, fiscal policy in 2012 is going to be very restrictive to the tune of more than 1% of gdp. that seems like an awful lot of fiscal restrain at a time that the economy is only growing at a moderate pace. it seems to me a better fiscal policy path would be to have less restraint over the near term accompanied by a credible long term program of fiscal consolidation. >> susie: you talk about everyone working together. if everyone isn't working together what does that mean for the economy. >> i think it's going to hurt confidence. it's going to hurt household confidence. a lot of people we talked to we asked about their business and saying we're actually okay. i say you're going out and hiring and investing. no, i'm sitting and waiting. so i think there are a lot of people that could be motivated to take positive steps to help the econy if it was better. >> susie: are people fearful about the long term prospect of the united states and what's going to happen to the living standard. >> that can change. if you start to see that's a credible policies put in place, people then become more confident about the future, stwhrfer they're more wi

the growth forecast for fiscal 2012 from 1.75% to 1%. >> bankruptcy is no longer an abstract word. it will take a long time to recover fiscal health. the burden is necessary. >> the package includes tax hikes and spending cuts amounting to 7 billion euros. about $9.6 billion. these measures are aimed to slash the deficit to 4.5% of the gdp in 2012. the government will raise the value added tax as well as taxes for major corporations. french president nicolas sarkozy and his cabinet agreed to freeze their salaries. they have also called on business leaders to follow suit. he said the retirement age will go up from 60 to 62. it will take effect 2017, one year earlier than originally planned. the prime minister said 110 billion euros or $151 billion are needed to balance the budget by 2016. >>> euro's finance ministers have agreed to compile concrete measures to boost an eu bailout fund by end of the month to help countries meyered in the debt crisis. finance chiefs from 17 euro zone countries reached the agreement monday as an eu meeting in brussels. the ministers agreed to implement the measures of the eu bailout fund known as the eu

the growth forecast for fiscal 2012 from 1.75% to 1%. >> bankruptcy is no longer an abstract word. it will take a long time to recover fiscal health. the burden is necessary. >> the package includes tax hikes and spending cuts amounting to 7 billion euros. about $9.6 billion. these measures are aimed to slash the deficit to 4.5% of the gdp in 2012. the government will raise the value added tax as well as taxes for major corporations. french president nicolas sarkozy and his cabinet agreed to freeze their salaries. they have also called on business leaders to follow suit. he said the retirement age will go up from 60 to 62. it will take effect 2017, one year earlier than originally planned. the prime minister said 110 billion euros or $151 billion are needed to balance the budget by 2016. >>> euro's finance ministers have agreed to compile concrete measures to boost an eu bailout fund by end of the month to help countries meyered in the debt cris. finance chiefs from 17 euro zone countries reached the agreement monday as an eu meeting in brussels. the ministers agreed to implement the measures of the eu bailout fund known as the euro

also at the same time, the fiscal year 13 budget is being worked out. they are already working on it right now. they are working on the 13 budget and the target their working for is about $525 billion. that is the cap set by the budget control act. the department has indicated they are not working on a contingency plan for a budget that would fit within sequestration. contingencyave a plan for sequestration at this point. that could change in the coming months. the budget they're working on now will come out in february. it's scheduled to come out the first monday in february. we know the cuts are lemming and we know what the budget cap would be. they may come out with a budget that does not fit under those caps in 2013. dod is in the early stages of planning their 2014 budget right now so they don't know whatfy fy12 will be yet and they may not have 13 cleared up the next year and they're already trying to plan for fy14 and beyond. the uncertainty in the defense budget of sequestration could persist for a year or longer. the real question is what are w

the question's going to be, once they have won re-election or lost it, whether or not they're willing to simply say, that political strategy is over. now it's time to get the right fiscalld come at a time where the president would be in a unique political circumstance that we've never seen him in before. we'll see what the calculus is then. ezra klein, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> coming up, the first openly gay u.s. ambassador, david hormel joins me. >>> and the late-night comedians have a lot to be thankful for. we'll bring you the best political jokes of the season. until she heard about the value plan. shop less. get more. make one call to an allstate agent. ♪ but you tonight [ male announcer ] this is your moment. this is zales, the diamond store. take an extra 15 percent off storewide this friday until two p.m. [ female announcer ] have you ever seen a glacier while sunbathing? why not? have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it's all possible in the nation of why not. royal caribbean's floating nation where you're free to do anything you want. which may be nothing at

the question's going to be, once they have won re-election or lost it, whether or not they're willing to simply say, that political strategy is over. now it's time to get the right fiscaluation in place. >> yeah, it would come at a time where the president would be in a unique political circumstance that we've never seen him in before. we'll see what the calculus is then. ezra klein, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> coming up, the first openly gay u.s. ambassador, david hormel joins me. >>> and the late-night comedians have a lot to be thankful for. we'll bring you the best political jokes of the season. ♪ [ male announcer ] the super bowl. the most epic day in america. and the end of a journey that began here, when the swipe of a visa card gave one man a chance to bring happiness to ten friends... and humiliation to one. if you want this ticket, i need you to wear this helmet. i'm not gonna do it. i'm not gonna do it. i'm not gonna do it. [ sobs ] [ male announcer ] use your visa card for a chance to win. to see more of the story, visit our facebook page. helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three

the more we can get in these fiscally-strap times to show the way forward across party lines, the more likely we can repair the damage here. the second piece is what i talked about before. let's begin to have federalist super committees. this is a republic. we are like germany, a whole series of other countries around the world. we act as if these levels of government, even though they interrelate, are separate and distinct. let's move forward on deficit- reduction and grove -- growth to pull in the real pragmatic innovators, not just from the political realm, but corporate, civic, and others. that may begin to, not just deal, but move us forward. -- heal, but move us forward. these sorts of things really require the kind of profound shifts in this polarized realm. >> yes, ma'am. in the green shirt. >> defense news. what sequestration might be a dumb way to cut defense, is there is more to do it? in the ribbon-amenity plan, it calls for cuts passed sequestration. is it the top line #or is the process itself that is so damaging for defense? >> i rather think it is the mindlessness of th

the british model. they will never get their fiscal house in order. that would also be very, very serious. timing'm -- i'm sympathetic with david's view. obviously we had to cut the budget deficit. there's no doubt. but my concern with it is that it's too fast. and above all, it's too rigid. and i think they have locked themselves in a position which could turn out over the next year or two to be very unfortunate. another two, three years of stagnation, bad for the economy, bad for the government. and bad for the public finances. >> but you say that you'd be scared witness if the united states were to do the same thing. but of course, at some level that is the conversation in america. we have a budget committee that's, you know, aasen don't and a house kmeg economy trying to figure out how to cut some $104 trillion out of the deficit. we have potential taxes on the rich. so -- >> and -- >> nobody's talking about spending more money in america. >> i have every confidence that the american will fail to do the cuts that they're promising. i don't think they can do -- >> which you think is a good thi

>>juan: i have to agree, i don't think that the american people at a time of fiscal austerity think the defense industry and the pentagon should be immune. now, secretary panetta, you have to understand, there has been about $450 billion in cuts agreed to in the last budget so this set of cuts that are being brought on by the sequestration as a result of the failure of the super committee is on top of that and i think secretary of defense panetta is speaking as a representative of the defense industry. but i think once you get outside of that circle and say, wait, this is 10 percent, why can't you guys also take a hair cut at a time when everyone else is getting cutbacks, it is a hard case to make. >> but panetta is saying now is not the time going against what the president is saying. place this for your response. >> it will take us to the edge. and if suddenly on top of that we face additional cuts or if the sequestration goes into effect and doubles the number of cuts, it will deficit our national dense. >> pretty strong words from the defense secretary. >>guest: he has to say that a

and the constraints on that would be fast enough to stabilize the fiscal situation on the five- to seven-year time, but not so fast as to kick the legs out from underneath the economy. and -- and probably against that standard, we've been too focused on deficit reduction and not quite enough on getting that time path right. and -- >> recognizing that it's a medium-term issue, not a -- >> a medium-term issue, not short-term issue -- >> it seems to me it's hard to make the case that it's urgent, unlike the european case. the other thing i think, you know, we ought to do and i don't know this will ever happen, right now, we're sort of hanging on to the living standards having had a huge shock. and to the extent we're doing that, the people who are paying most of the cost are the unemployed, underemployed, and people who have given up. that doesn't seem to be right. >> you would say extend unemployment benefits -- >> absolutely. yeah. keeping an eye on whether you're really creating a disincentive or not or whether you're trying to help people that are bearing most of the burden. you know, i'm sure yo

[applause] at the same time, we will elect the fiscal and social conservative to represent the people of the second district. [applause] with your support, i will be your innate -- your next united states congressman. reagan [applause] talked about peace through strength. he was not only talking about military strength but also economic strength. i will not dwell on military strength, except to say that people still exists in the world today. as many of you know, i ran developing a nuclear weapon. evil still exist. we must be prepared. today, economically, we are at a tipping point. unemployment is above 9%. consumer uncertainty is at an all-time high. large and small businesses have no idea what is coming around the next quarter. as a matter of fact, i would argue that the administration itself does not know what they are doing. christmas tree tax, no christmas tree tax. they do not have their act together. what will it take? less regulation. i know firsthand working for one of the world's greatest businesses, john deere and that dog frank single -- effective job creation. odd-frank.

the united states of america is now at 101% debt to g.d.p. ratio. it's about time we start to take a decision. are we going to be fiscally discipline? are we going to have fiscal responsibility? are we going to continue to bankrupt the future of our children and grandchildren because we were sent here to be elected officia, sent here to be leaders and we were afraid to make tough decisions? historically we won't make tough decisions. i have been here 11 months but i have to tell you we have to do something different. it has to start now or else what do i say, mr. speaker, to my two daughters, 18 and 14? am i going to say that i didn't have the courage to stand here today to make the tough decisions in order for them to have a bright and prosperous future in the united states of america? in fiscal year 2011 we saw a 6.5% increase in revenue in the united states of america. yet, we still had a $1.3 trillion we follows on the heels of a $1.42 trillion and $1.29 trillion deficit. now is time for a balanced budget amendment. if n now then when? when we hit $20 trillion debt? mr. speaker, i think that each and every one of us here today wh

the event that hcd does not close on time, the document would not be signed. because the document must be executed by november 30, 2011, and because there is no fiscal impact on the city, i am introducing it as a resolution for adoption without reference to the committee, and i urge you to vote in favor to help preserve this exemplary senior housing source. lastly, i will quickly give a heads up that next week, we will be hearing a resolution. i am introducing it today. one of the richmond pride restaurants is ave said. the chef is also an author, and there is an incredible book that he has just written. a special meeting will happen on november 19 at green apple books on the bookstore, but the resolution will acknowledge his 10th anniversary in our neighborhood, and we hope they will stay forever in the richmond district but also acknowledging the chef's national and international awards and his book signing that is coming up as well. the rest i will submit. thank you. supervisor farrell: thank you. colleagues, have the election day as well -- happy election day as well. i am introducing an amendment that take away our right choice voting system in san franc

we can either lead and be bold, making the hard decisions necessary to correct this fiscal trajectory or stay in our time war and political lanes staying with the status quo that has given this nation this unsustainable debt burden. we could do something big for this country and our future and make deficit spending a thing of the past. this is a significant moment. i urge that we pass this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan. mr. conyers: mr. speaker, i'm pleased now to recognize the gentlelady from illinois, january schakowsky, for -- jan schakowsky for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. schakowsky: i rise in opposition to the balanced budget amendment. president clinton office with not just a balanced budget but with a surplus and got there by a one-vote margin, no republican votes whatsoever. and here we are today after eight years and two wars and two tax cuts that were paid for on the credit card, namely benefiting the wealthy and devastating recession that could have been prevented by financial regulators

they fundamentally dvd that the federal government has to get its fiscal house in order, at the same time they believe that we have to set a platform for the next generation, of growth. and, frankly, it's not likely, the growth we had pre-recession which was highly characterized i consumption and overleveraging and innovating the wrong things. so i would say their perspective is threefold. first, we've got to cut but we've got to cut too fast it would got to begin to invest in those things that are going to set our economy on a different path forward. substantial sustained investment in advanced research and development, basic science. we do it to some extent in health obviously. we do it with defense. we have not invested in clean energy are anti-to the extent that we need to do to crack the code on clean energy. we need to invest in advanced manufacturing. once we invest in basic science, we need to be much better about commercializing innovation and doing tech transfer. so we don't just have the ideas in the united states, we begin to prototype projects and began, frankly, to produce a

year than last fiscal year at this point in time. the majority of that is due to the intergovernmental agreement, because we got a lot of money early in the year last year for the transbay project and for the exploratorium project and for the uc project. we looked at the valuation that issue permits, and we show an increase of 54.3%. last time i reported a very large increase, and we continue to have an increase in the evaluation of issue permits. when you look at the projects we're processing, this year we are showing less in the small projects, those with valuations less than $2,000, but we're showing a large increase of projects from $2,000 up to over $1 million with a significant amount of increasing in those $1 million and more. we do see growth and recovery. we have a lot of activity in our inspections and our current services. so that is the good news. in terms of the expenses, as you can tell, again, 25% of the year has passed. about 20% of the salaries and fringes have been expended. the of the percentages are very small in othe

document, it appears to ever wrote the mta response claim that they will have enough lrv's in this fiscal year was not aware of this predicted schedule. the next time i would like to draw attention to his finding 25. and richard found a lack of care in the mta is communicating of correct and accurate information. the mta disagrees wholly with this finding, responding the review documents with careful attention to detail. however, they did not address the three specific examples we cited in our report, and additionally, the response of themselves contained inaccuracies. in recommendation 26, the grand jury was discussing which populations will be served by the central subway. in its response, mta cited six large tech companies that will be served by the new central subway route. of the six companies, three of the company they named are nowhere near the proposed route. we put together a map. just to better illustrate this. the red line is the proposed route for the central subway. you can see an orange flag at the top. that is one market street, the location of salesforce. in the bottom left corner, around market and ninth and 10th is twitter. i know

the rich. host: we will get a response. guest: both parties have been acting fiscally irresponsible. with that republicans control the house and the senate and democrats control for part of the time over the past 11 years. it has been the most fiscally irresponsible period in the history of the united states. the so-called super committee was supposed to help us make congress. they did nothing. it was a total waste of time. what are people talking about now? they want to resend be sequestered. the want to extend the tax cuts. the one to extend unemployment. they want to extend the payroll tax cuts -- they want to extend unemployment. all of those things make the deficit worse, not better. host: david walker is the founder and ceo of the comeback america initiative and former contra -- and former comptroller general. please come back again. you're watching "washington journal" for this tuesday morning. the house and senate in recess for the thanksgiving holiday. coming up, will turn our attention to the issue that david walker was talking about, money and politics and just how much members of congress are getting as they serve as a ranking members or committee chairs. melanie sloa

it pays for five cabinet departments for the fiscal year 2012 and for the rest of the government through december 16th. >> for the first time u.s. senators will take part in a secret santa gift exchange. according to "the washington post" almost 60 senators have signed up. organizers want bipartisan swaps, though there are more democrats currently taking part. gifts will be exchanged at a december party. the spending limit, ten bucks. >> coming up tonight, eight nights from black friday and people are already lining up. can you believe it? >> no. >> a father in the air force returns to virginia to surprise his daughters at their high school. >> and high heels getting just that, higher. the trend is sending more and more women to the doctor. >> and doug's back with just ament with more on the >>> have you been to a shoe store lately? you'll see five inch heels everywhere. this may look fabulous but doctors say high heels come at a high cost in pain. >> i have wedges and stilettos, boots with high heels. you name it, i have them. >> 37-year-old luce vargas says the higher the heel on her shoe, the better she feels. >> they ma

the loss of one-time revenues. with furlough days, those are expiring at the end of the fiscal year, and our base case default assumption is we see those cost increases take effect starting july 1st. obviously we know the employee benefit costs are going up. that is the projection that would assume we did fund the capital budget that the full plan that level recommended, and it seems we're facing some inflationary cost increases on non-personnel costs measures. $350 million. in the five-year plan that was 458 million, and that is less because of encored revenue improvement we saw as we were going to the budget process that carried into the current year. depending on the november election, it could decrease

at the same time, failing to address our national fiscal crisis makes it tough to get that economy moving. it only weakens our economy and erodes our competitiveness in the world. saying we can tackle either our financial crisis, which is borne out by the $15 trillion debt that we had reported just two weeks ago, or we can address the economic slump will find ourselves in, to me, it is a false choice. we have to do both. the mounting debt is a drag on job creation. one have probably heard about is a 2008 study. they have met with us to talk about their research and how they came up with their conclusions. they have shown that once the country's debt burden reaches 90% of the economy, you have a significant downturn in economic growth. they say is 1%-2% reduction in gdp. as i calculated, and two decades, that would leave one fit that -- our economy one- fifth smaller than it would otherwise be. if we don't get our public debt to gdp ratio, which is now at 100%, we will continue to create about a million fewer jobs annually. the pressure of the annual deficit condemn it does have an impact

from alice rivlin, who as you know, former cbo but was also on the national commission on fiscal responsibility. she said in the "new york timesdnesday, "i fear the president is missing a huge opportunity for leadership at a crucial moment. the president could greatly enhance the chances of such a bargain by getting visibly involved. it is not only the right thing to do, it is his only chance of getting his jobs program. has the president -- we have not seen the president's fingerprints at all on the debt commission, not much on his jobs program, although he's been out campaigning. he is now with ten days left gone overseas to attend to his commander in chief duties and leader of the free world and all of that, but should he be more involved? >> i think we saw the president and the speaker try to weigh in at the end of the debt debacle in early august. it didn't end up producing a result. >> right. >> and we saw the president come forward saying he would support the gang of six. i do think with this president, whatever he comes up with, there's going to be a series of folks that will reject that categorically just out of hand.

>> should he be labeled a fiscal conservative given deficit -- >> i mean the deficit for themselves, 3% was in president of the timei think post more time. >> 3% was not unprecedented by any means. i certainly think he was a fiscal conservative. again, you know, all in perspective the budget deficit was never large. now, you know, i will say this within the ronald reagan administration, we had huge debates about $50 billion. i mean there was a lot of money. you know what the size of the deficit is today? its $1.4 trillion. >> we didn't know what trillion was. >> the total federal budget, the total federal spending was less than a trillion dollars when i became. >> we had huge debates about 50 billion-dollar deficit and i mean, this administration was very fiscally principled, and he established that principle, but again, i will say he definitely had priorities. he wasn't willing to compromise. did he know the consequences and the deficit? i think he did, but i think that his view was very long run. that's the one thing you have to remember about this president. he took long run view. he didn't think about how thing

the loss of one-time revenues. with furlough days, those are expiring at the end of the fiscal year, and our base case default assumptions we see those cost increases take effect starting july 1st. obviously we know the employee benefit costs are going up. that is the projection that would assume we did fund the capital budget that the full plan that level recommended, and it seems we're facing some inflationary cost increases on non-personnel

the loss of one-time revenues. with furlough days, those are expiring at the end of the fiscal year, and our base case default assumption is we see those cost increases take effect starting july 1st. obviously we know the employee benefit costs are going up. that is the projection that would assume we did fund the capital budget that the full plan that level recommended, and it seems we're facing some inflationary cost increases on non-personnel costs measures. $350 million. in the five-year plan that was 458 million, and that is less because of encored revenue improvement we saw as we were going to the budget process that carried into the current year. depending on the november election, it could decrease the pension and benefit reform of 45 million in savings. the sales tax measure would give us $60 million annually, so this deficit would immediately come down by $100 million if this measure were to pass next month. if we implement other strategies in the five-year plan like pulling the prop h measure, we could achieve between 50 million and 100 million in additional savings before we factor in ongoing department or r

the fiscal agent that we tend to have more employees in the executive organization. the general manager is a san francisco employee. we hired him in august. for a long time, he was a senior employee at the assessors office, and he has great expertise in executive management, financial management, and personal management. we insisted on that because we are the fiscal agent. we want one of our city employees to be the fiscal manager since our city manager is legally responsible for these funds. we think that has been for the good of san francisco. i would say at least half of the employees on staff over there are from san francisco. there are others from other cities as well. supervisor mirkarimi: what can we look forward to? a lot of this is about preparation, being ready, being alert. what i emergency preparedness for man-made or natural disasters, what have you, can we look forward to in the next year? i know there's always drills. there's always these kind of simulations that occur that try to unite the different agencies in different emergency scenarios. what changes now as we -- i am sure we are looking for new scenarios or new kinds of challenges to

had to think about those twin challenges of how do you get the economy going at the same time of controlling the kind of fiscalext for the country. how did you get the balance right, or how were you thinking about in those terms? i think it's quite relevant to today. >> well, it's very relevant to today, and it required some very tough choices because it really was a balancing act. we did try, and it's oftentimes forgot, we tried to do two things at once. and i think we need to keep bringing back the politics of the moment here because we went out with a notion which is actually very common in today's discussion of the economy of paring a package that would -- pairing a package that would provide insurance for what looked like a weak, anemic jobless -- it was the first time people were using the word jobless -- recovery, high unemployment rate not going down. so we came up with the idea of an insurance package of investments short term pair today a multiyear, balanced long-term deficit reduction package. and we went out with that idea. frankly, that idea was an idea that, i think, had widespread support among